Author's note.
Dr Mark, my amazing editor, has told me that my portrayal of the WitSec program is not quite accurate. It doesn't surprise me, since everything I know about it I've gleaned from TV and the internet. While I normally like to be as authentic as possible, I've chosen to keep my inaccuracies in place, because they suit the story. Likewise I am asking you to bear with any thoughts you may have of 'that wouldn't happen like that' and remember - when all's said and done, you're reading a story about psychic powers...
KR
PM.
Caleb 77 - The first law of robotics
The police officer spent about thirty minutes taking my statement, asking follow-up questions and finally getting me to read and sign what he'd written. He also issued me a receipt for my Glock, which he said they would get back to me when they'd completed their investigation. He warned me it might take some time.
Maggie and Dianna stayed for another hour after, going over the events of the evening with me over and over.
"Without doubt," Maggie said, "you saved a man's life tonight, possibly others too. The Marshals arrived just as you fired your weapon, but from what Dianna saw from the two others that you'd Compelled, the guy you shot was literally about to kill Carl. That little girl would have been left without a father."
"And what about the kids of the guy I killed?" I asked. "Does he even have kids? Is he married? He'll have a mother, a father, perhaps brothers and sisters..."
"The guy you killed," Dianna told me, "was a criminal. A dangerous criminal who was manufacturing and selling drugs. He had no concern about the lives and families he destroyed with his poisons. I won't say he deserved to die, because that's not my call. What I will say is that Carl, June, and Carly DID NOT deserve what he was planning to do to them. YOU didn't deserve to die at his hands for wanting to protect the innocent.
"You did what you had to do to stop him hurting others."
"I could have stopped him without killing him," I said.
"You can't know that," she argued. "You tried one power on him, and it didn't work. You had less than a quarter of a second before he killed you. Once you're dead your control over the other two vanishes and so you have three armed perps back in play. Then what? Marshals come bursting in and meet a hail of gunfire from three gunmen, a gun battle ensues, and who knows how many people die, including an innocent family with a two-year-old little girl.
"Think about that," said Dianna. "I need you to come and see me tomorrow afternoon. My office at 2pm. Okay?"
I nodded to her.
She dug into her purse and pulled out a small bottle.
"I want you to take two of these before you go to bed," she said. "They'll help you sleep tonight."
She handed me the bottle, and I took it mechanically, not sure whether I would take the tablets or not. The thought of sleep repelled me just now, I knew that I would dream, and in dreaming would relive the events of the night over and over again. I'd see the face of the man whom I'd robbed of life as it went from a sneer, to a scowl, and then showed shock and pain almost in the same instant as I murdered him.
After Maggie and Dianna left, I took myself out into the back yard, sat on one of the lawn chairs, and simply stared at the sky. The night was cold and, for once, there were few clouds. I looked up at the stars, my eye attracted to the slow progress of a jet, flying thousands of feet above me, seemingly crawling across the sky like a bug across glass. I wondered about the people aboard that flight. Where were they going? Where had they been? Their lives, their families.
I could feel the girls in the house, worrying about me. They'd wanted to follow me out, to be with me, but had sensed my need to be alone to try and reconcile what had happened, and come to terms with what I'd done, the life I'd taken.
I imagined that many people would say, 'Good job kid. He was bad news, you did the right thing...' But when is killing the right thing to do?
For some strange reason my mind presented Asimov's first law of robotics. It seemed apt.
"A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm."
In this case I was the robot. Inaction would have allowed Carl to be killed, action killed another human being. So did I have the right to determine which of the two human beings deserved to live or die. I kill one or he kills the other?
What's more I didn't know either of them. For all I knew Carl could have been Dracula and I just gunned down Van-Helsing. I'd reacted to a situation I'd been presented with, without knowing the full story.
Also, I'd used lethal force when I'd had a non-lethal option. I could have, should have, used TK to immobilise him. That way nobody needed to die. BUT I'd tried one power, and it hadn't worked. If I'd have tried TK and that didn't work, I'd have likely not had time to try anything else before I was killed.
So, I wasn't protecting the innocent by killing the man, I was protecting myself. It was self defence. ONLY I didn't need to be there in the first place. It's not like the man came into my home, he was in a neighbors house and I went in after him. Not self-defence then?
Around and around my thoughts spun, presenting ever more ridiculous scenarios. I'd presented Carly as an obvious innocent. I was certain I could rely on that; she was a child. Only the gunman wasn't pointing the gun at Carly, he was pointing it at Carl. Carl, who could just as easily have been a kidnapper holding the child captive, and I just murdered her would-be rescuer.
All through this maelstrom of thoughts and arguments and counter arguments I kept coming back to one thing, one fact that no matter what I said, couldn't be denied. Tonight, I took a life. Tonight, a man, a living breathing human being, stopped doing both, and it was by my hand. No matter the reason, the excuse or justification, I ended a life tonight.
I heard footsteps approaching and brought my eyes down from the heavens. June, or Jane I guess, was standing a few feet away, Carly in her arms. The child, wide awake, was staring at me.
"Are you okay?" Jane asked me. I wondered if one of my girls had put her up to coming to talk to me. I doubted that anyone in either household would be sleeping much tonight. I didn't know what time it was but guessed around three in the morning.
"I don't know," I said.
"He was going to kill Chris," she said. I was confused for a moment and then realized that that must be Carl's real name. "You didn't have a choice."
"I..." I began but couldn't continue. She had no idea about powers, how could I explain that I did actually have a choice.
"And then he would have killed me," she continued, walking toward me slowly.
"And then..." she stopped speaking as she stood in front of me. She bent forward a little, and placed her child into my lap. Carly for her part, simply snuggled into me, putting her little arms around my neck and resting her head on my shoulder. Out of reflex I put my arms around her, "he would have killed Kirsty." She finished.
I looked down at the little girl in my arms. A wave of protectiveness for this little bundle of humanity washed over me. No matter what, she was an innocent, and there was no way I was going to let harm come to her. I may not have known the exact circumstances at the time, but I knew them now. The man with the gun WAS the bad guy and he HAD intended harm to innocents. He was going to hurt this beautiful little girl and there was no way that I was going to let that happen. If stopping him from hurting her meant using lethal force, then that was an unfortunate price, but one that was well worth paying.
I'd tried the non-lethal option and given him ample warning. Even without powers he could have, should have, done as commanded and dropped his weapon. If he'd surrendered as ordered, as the other two had, he would be alive even now. He was the one who'd determined his own fate.
I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling lighter. I was certainly by no means happy about what had transpired, and that I'd been forced to do something I'd never even considered I'd do, but at least now I'd be able to look at myself in the mirror and tell myself that my actions were justified. I didn't like it, but I knew I'd be able to live with myself. Something I'd thought might never be possible again.
I guess the girls felt my change in mood, as the back door opened, and Mary came out, followed by everyone else in the house. They approached where I was sitting holding Kirsty. Mary smiled at me softly.
"I guess she feels safe with you," she said quietly. I looked down at Kirsty, to find that she'd fallen asleep in my arms. Jane shook her head ruefully.
"I'll know where to come," she said, "when I can't get her to settle." She made no move to reclaim her daughter though. Mary sat beside me.
"Are you okay?" she echoed Jane's question from earlier.
