"How would you assess the sales potential of your recently introduced product lines?" Lee Marks asked the CEO he was interviewing. He listened to the answer with his ears, but also with his mind - his right mind to be more specific.
"I would say the chances are good that we will exceed the Street's expectations," the executive replied confidently. Simultaneously, Lee perceived a mental picture from the other man: {* an avalanche on a mountainside}. He thought to himself,
That's rather ambiguous; does that represent an abundant flow of income, or a natural disaster? I'll try a follow-up question later.
Out loud he said, "I'm sure my readers would want to know how the integration of last year's acquisition is going."
"Very well indeed, as would be expected by the similarity of our corporate cultures." But the image Lee received from his mind was {* the La Brea tar pits}.
No doubt about that one,
Lee thought to himself,
that's got to be a bad sign.
The interview continued, with the CEO trying to make a favorable impression on Lee, who was there in his capacity as writer for the small-circulation, but very influential securities newsletter,
Diverse Analysis
. A little-known fact was that Lee was the owner and almost the only employee of the newsletter. He did not need a large backup staff, however, because Lee was a telepath.
His gift, however, was limited in the sense that it seemed to be a phenomenon of his right brain only. With it, he could only perceive the right brain impressions of those around him. His sixth sense brought him images and emotions, never words and numbers. Using the gift was an art rather than a science because in people's right brains, everyone speaks their own private language. What did a particular image mean? Lee could only be
sure
with a long-term acquaintance with whom he'd clearly associated an image with an emotion. Sure, most of the time if a woman projected a spider, it was a sign of fear or unease. But once he'd met a woman who'd had a tarantula as a pet and it was a sign of affection when she connected it with someone in her thoughts.
That limitation made the gift hard to use as a weapon, and those few times Lee had thought to so use it, he'd lost the edge of his anger before he'd learned enough of the perpetrator's internal visual "language" to carry out an assault. Finally, he'd decided to completely forego such attempts and had never regretted it.
Finally, Lee brought the interview to a close, and thanked the executive for his time. While in the elevator, Lee checked his watch; although he had a date tonight, there still was time enough to get some of his impressions down while they were still fresh, and adjust his private portfolio. His investment advice wasn't always correct: there's a certain random element in the stock market even at best. But knowing what the insiders were
really
thinking made him right much more often than not, and he was personally very wealthy.
An hour later he arrived at his own office and was greeted by his only employee. "Good afternoon, Marks-sama," Noriko said with a smile. She handed him a portfolio containing things that needed his attention.
Lee glanced through it quickly. The material was organized and prioritized with Noriko's usual efficiency; luckily none of it needed to be handled immediately. "I got a good interview," Lee told her. "I'll write it up today and tomorrow, and that will be all we need for the next edition."
Noriko looked pleased at that declaration; it was always a relief when she got plenty of lead time to do the layout and paste up. Lee asked her to do a bit of fact-checking online, and then retired to his luxurious office suite. He sat down and slipped on a headset and began to dictate his article to the voice recognition software on his computer. After two hours he was ready for a break and leaned back and rubbed his eyes. He extended his sixth sense outwards until he contacted Noriko's right mind. She was an extremely intelligent and talented woman who did the work that would usually take several people. Lee paid her very generously, but he also liked to use his gift to see if there was anything else he could do to keep her contented.
He perceived {* the Tokyo bullet train}, and relaxed back into his chair. They had worked together for long enough that he knew her internal mental language fairly well, and this was a metaphor for work going well and easily. Noriko was very beautiful and Lee found her Japanese manners quite charming, but he never considered dating her. Even with his abilities he couldn't avoid every last little conflict with the women he dated; he didn't want a lover's spat disrupting his smoothly running office.
But there was one way in which he was using his power with her, to provide her all unawares with a perk like no other employer could. And later when he heard her rustling around preparing to end the workday, Lee began to reach out with his mind. Noriko often jogged home when the weather was fine, and when she went in her bathroom to change into her running clothes, Lee tuned into her thoughts. He built an image and prepared to project it by imagining it floating in front of Noriko's face where she'd have to see it. She wouldn't literally see it, but it would internalize it in her right brain where it would provoke the state of mind for which that image was a metaphor. Lee projected lightly, {Noriko as a Japanese singing sensation, wearing a sailor suit *}.
