Cindy Psi: Spy In Training
Chapter 16: Training

“Right, who’s familiar with the game called Telephone? Or I think some planets call it Whispers.”

Every hand went up – which meant five of them. The children were sitting in the same room from the events of the previous day. Dave had spoken to them first, and explained that the twins, when given the choice, had decided to opt out and go home. Cindy had not been overly surprised. So that left her, George, Milton, Jane, and … what was the tall girl’s name again? Oh yes, Natalie. Cindy was a little surprised that she had opted to stay as well – she had seemed a little cool generally after the attack. But there she was, as neatly turned out as yesterday, sitting with that same straight-backed, almost hoity posture and that detached, almost cold look in her eyes.

The lady talking to them now had introduced herself as Selma. There had been no mention of Rebecca, so Cindy assumed there was no change. Selma looked younger than any of the other adults they’d met so far – late teens, perhaps 20 at the most. She was quite short – not much taller than Natalie – and a little bit plump. She had begun the session introducing herself as one of the junior instructors who was going to tell them about the basics of shielding. She continued.

“Ok, so what we’re going to do now is a version of that, but using mindspeak. I’ll sping a message to one of you and an image of who to send it to next. When you get it, you sping it to that person with an image of the next and so on. At some point I’ll call stop and whoever was last with the message says it out loud to me.

“Sorry, miss,” said Milton, “What do you mean by ‘sping’?”

“It’s just shorthand for sending a mindspeak message to someone. It comes from ‘psychic ping’ I think. I guess it’s kind of a slang word so you won’t replace it on your crib sheets but you’ll be using it plenty before long! So, are we ready?”

A series of nods.

For a few moments Cindy just sat there – it was a bit odd, because she could see the others shift in their seat or otherwise react while they were being contacted. As far as she could work out, Selma sent the message to Natalie first, who only showed any sign of it when she turned her head slightly to send the message to Jane. Jane immediately grinned as she got the message and kicked her legs under her chair. She sent it on to Milton. Cindy then became aware that he was trying to send it on to her. She cleared her mind to receive it.

Selma says she likes … but … came the message in fragments, along with a vague image that could have been any of them.

I’m sorry, Milton, Cindy sent back, I couldn’t make that out. What does Selma like?

Selma says she likes ... ... but it doesn’t like her came the thought, clearer this time but still not quite clear enough. The image remained unchanged.

That was better, Cindy sent, trying to be encouraging, but I still didn’t quite get it.

“You’re not listening!” Milton exclaimed out loud, clearly frustrated. He was looking directly at Cindy so it was clear who he was sending to.

“I’m sorry Milton, I’m trying,” she said, also out loud.

Selma intervened, saying “Don’t get frustrated Milton, it takes a little practice. You’ll be spinging like mad before the day’s out, I promise you. Try again, and this time you need to think about the connection between you and Cindy – you may see it as a kind of silvery line joining the two of you when you speak. Think about that, and imagine it’s a wire and you’re sending thoughts along it like a current. Off you go.”

Cindy waited expectantly as Milton thought about what Selma had said and tried to put it into practice.

Selma says … came the thought, clearer this time.

That’s better! Cindy sent, nodding appreciatively. Keep it up!

Milton was clearly concentrating very hard. Selma says she likes chocolate cake but it doesn’t like her! By the end of the sentence it was as clear as a bell and Milton was looking very pleased with himself.

That’s great! Well done, sent Cindy, and who shall I send it to next?

Oh yeah, he sent back, and turned to look at George making it pretty obvious (although George was the only one left to be fair, so it was kind of obvious already.) Milton turned back to Cindy and visibly strained. Cindy was a little unclear on whether the image was coming from Milton or if she was just imagining George’s face herself because she knew it was going to be him, but she decided to just go with it.

Brilliant, well done Milton. She broke contact with him and turned to George.

Selma says she likes chocolate cake … she began

But it doesn’t like her. Yes, I got it. Came the message back from George, clear as a bell.

It was only much later that Cindy thought to wonder how he had known that – as far as she knew no-one had communicated the message out loud or sent it to him at this point.

And who shall I send it to? He continued.

Oh, right, sorry, sent Cindy, and sent through an image of Jane.

Of course, he sent, somehow managing to sound sarcastic in his tone of … well, thought, she figured.

Selma interrupted a moment later. “Who has the thought, what was it, and where is it due to go next?” She said.

Jane jumped up. “It’s me! I was last. It was that you like chocolate cake but it doesn’t like you, and I was meant to send it on to Milton.”

“Well done,” said Selma. “Right, now we’re going to introduce another dimension to the game. What I want you to do this time is the same as before, but as we sping around the circle I want anyone who doesn’t have the thought to be trying to replace it out from whoever has it, or if you don’t get the thought but you get the image instead I want you to sping the person who’s meant to be getting it next and tell them you’ve intercepted. We’ll do a couple of rounds of this and then I’ll tell you how to make it harder for people to do the intercepting. Let’s go.”

This time Cindy watched the people in the circle for reactions to see if she could anticipate where the message was. She thought she got the sense it was with Natalie, so she quickly slipped into mindspace and tried to intercept. At first she saw nothing, but, drawing her focus in, she thought she could see a line running from Natalie to George. George was looking at this shoes, giving nothing away, and Natalie was equally cautious, but Cindy was sure she identified the contact. So, how to intercept it? She imagined sending her own line out to connect to the one she could now see clearly between Natalie and George.

Sure enough, she found she could plug in to the line. ... could even be one of you … she heard, and with it clearly saw an image of Jane. Oddly, Cindy found she could also detect from the image some of what Natalie seemed to think about Jane – she was plumper in Natalie’s image than in real life, Cindy thought, and somehow looked a little daft. Cindy wasn’t too keen on this, but decided to keep it to herself. She kept her focus on George now, and waited for him to send the message to Jane. Being in mindspace and focused already, she saw the line stretch out to connect to her and Jane, bless her, couldn’t help but react with a little gasp and a big smile. This time Cindy listened from the start.

Remember, children, guard your thoughts, as you don’t know who might be listening in. It could even be Cindy, George sent to Jane, sending an image of Cindy towards her, and this time it was clearly shaped by George to be a caricature – Cindy’s nose wasn’t that big, for a start, and she only had a few freckles – not that thick band of big blotches from one cheek to another. And she certainly wasn’t cross-eyed!

“Selma?” she said aloud.

“Yes, Cindy?”

“I think I’ve intercepted the message.”

“Go on then,” Selma said expectantly.

I think you said “Remember, children, guard your thoughts, as you don’t know who might be listening in. It could even be one of you” she finished pointedly, with a look across to George, who looked back at her with a smart alec expression. “Natalie sent it to George, and then George was sending it to Jane with an image of me.”

“Yes, well done. I had noticed that as well,” said Selma, “It wasn’t a very good image, was it George?” She looked accusingly at him.

George had the courtesy to look embarrassed at least.

“Ok, let’s keep it friendly. Well done Cindy by the way – do you want to tell the others how you intercepted?”

“I think I know,” Milton cut in, “I nearly had it myself. She saw the line between Natalie and George and plugged her own line into it. When she saw who was going to get it next she was ready.”

The others looked impressed. “Well done Milton!” exclaimed Selma. “Now you see, children, this is a good example of how different people have different strengths. Although you struggled with spinging at first Milton you seem to be a natural with the more receptive skills.”

“Yes, that makes sense,” said Milton, obviously very pleased, “I didn’t have any trouble plugging in to Rebecca when she showed us …” his voice trailed off as it all came back. The other children started looking perturbed as well. Selma intervened quickly.

“Yes, that’s right,” She said. “Listening to a mindshare and plugging into mindspeak are much the same, although the latter is harder, so well done you.” Milton looked pleased again, albeit still a bit shaken by the memory. “And well done Cindy,” she continued, “Did anyone else get it?”

“I haven’t really had a chance because you sent to me first.” Said Natalie. Selma nodded.

“I didn’t. But I know what to do now, can we try it again?” Asked Jane.

“Yes, we’ll do a couple more and then I’ll teach you how to guard.

They did three more cycles. Cindy picked up the thread each time but let the others have a go. Milton got the first one (it was Jane sending to George). Natalie got the second, and George got the third (although Cindy could tell Milton had picked it up as well and, like her, was giving the others a chance. Jane was yet to get one, and was starting to look a bit fed up. On the fourth try, Selma sent to Cindy first.

She had an idea. She sent the message (it was “all horses have four legs, but not all things with four legs are horses”) to Natalie with an image of Milton, but as she was sending it, she tried to send a little side nudge to Jane, by imagining a tiny splinter line coming off the connection between her and Natalie.

It seemed to work. Jane’s eyes popped wide like saucers and she jumped up excitedly.

“Ooo, miss, miss, Selma!” she exclaimed, waving her arm frantically in the air, “I got it! It’s Cindy sending to Natalie. Something about horses!”

Selma couldn’t suppress a small chuckle at Jane’s blatant excitement. “Yes,” she said, smiling at her, “Well done. That was very good. And very impressive, all of you,” she said to the group, adding particularly using a covert nudge there, Cindy to Cindy alone. Cindy blushed at being found out, but said nothing.

“Right,” she said, “Blocking. Now, who can describe what happens when you sping someone?”

Milton answered first. “It’s like you connect with a mental pipe … or wire. Kind of like a glowing silver one.”

“That’s right, and you intercept by …?”

Jane cut in. “You connect your own wire to their wire!”

“Yes. So, who wants to have a guess how you defend against it?”

There was silence for a moment.

“There’s two things you can do, if that helps,” Selma coaxed.

George broke the silence. “I guess,” he hazarded, “Logically, if there’s two things, one is to make it hard to intercept when you’re discovered, and the other would be to not get discovered in the first place.”

“That’s right,” said Selma, encouragingly, “Go on.”

“Well,” George continued, “I guess for the first one you need to somehow make your mindline hard to plug into. Put a shell around it or something. And for the second, um, I don’t know. Somehow you need to do the mental equivalent of whispering I suppose?”

“That’s exactly right!” Said Selma, clapping her hands together once. “That’s exactly what you do. The way I think about it is that mindspace is a very visual kind of place. You imagine things as pictures, and you can use this to shape the way it works. So, for example, to make your mindline hard to break, what do you think you’d do?”

“I know! I know!” Jane, of course, “You imagine like a hard shell on it!”

“Brilliant!” Exclaimed Selma. “Well done, Jane! And to make it hard to replace?”

There was silence around the circle again. It was Natalie who broke it this time. “You’d have to … hide it somehow. If it’s visual, I guess, you could imagine covering it over with something?”

Selma nodded, impressed. “Yes. That will work, and it’s one of the best ways. There are others, and you’ll no doubt work out your own best technique, but, armed with those two suggestions, shall we have another round?”

There was a chorus of assent, and the children got to work.