Wharf Three, Warehouse 21, Jurong Island, New Singapore
Friday 28 February 2110, 11:50am +8 UTC
Gabriel leaned forward in his seat and put his hands on Cochran’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry you had to listen to that. I didn’t think he would kill her,” he said. “But now you know what kind of man Sir Thomas is. There is no loyalty in him. Just self, an evil self. You can let him get away with this or you can help us destroy him. Which will it be?”
Cochran’s sightless eyes stared wide. Tears flowing down her cheeks. She sniffed loudly and breathed out. Sunita had died for her. Sir Thomas had killed her.
“What do you want?” she said in a voice that was almost a whisper.
“Call UNPOL and take the Blue Notice off Martine Shorne and me. Explain we were working undercover for Flederson and are now working for you. And get us clearance to fly the assault craft to the roof of the Marq.”
A sob wracked through Cochran.
Gabriel looked at her. The hatred he felt, turned to pity. He couldn’t avoid the emotion.
Cochran snarled a savage cry from deep back in her throat, but it ended in another body-wracking sob, her mind screaming. “Don’t pity me. Don’t.”
Gabriel, his hands on her shoulders, pulled her into his embrace, holding her tight. She stiffened at the contact and then went limp. “You’re right,” he thought as clearly as he could, projecting the thought into her anguished mind. “Pity is wrong. Really it’s sorry I feel. Sorrow for the pain you’ve suffered. You’re as much Sir Thomas’s victim as the rest of us. Sharon, come with us. Look into my mind now. It’s open to you. Look and see that I am your friend not your enemy.”
Sharon heard the word 'friend' and latched on to it, like a person sinking in quicksand stretching for a branch. She tentatively reached out and entered Gabriel’s open mind. It was a vast universe of warmth, golden, and its intensity made her gasp. She sobbed and he hugged her tightly to him. Tears from her blind eyes.
“How can I go with you? I’m blind,” but even as she thought it, she knew she could and would. The walks in the dark she took every night were no different than this. She could see with her mind.
“Sharon, if you trust me, then stay with me and look at the world through my eyes.”
His words spurring hope, she searched and saw herself as he straightened away from her, his hands still on her shoulders. He smiled at her — she felt rather than saw it — and through his eyes looked at herself in a way she never had before.