S.P.Y.

Chapter 16: MAD

Sylis climbed the final stairway to the roof where he pushed open the door and locked it after him with the old-fashioned key he received from Meyers minutes before. The roof was made out of concrete and empty. There were small half walls made out of stone or brick-like materials that lined the perimeter. There was not a single bench to sit on so Sylis simply sat on the baking concrete. The small bow that held the door he used as shade for himself and his computer. His back rested on one of the walls and he got to work.

If Lilin's sister could talk to Piper by asking for conversation then surely he could too. He closed his eyes as he had seen Piper do sometimes to concentrate (before he knew she was a telepath). "I want to talk to Piper." He thought these words then repeated them again and again. "I want to talk to Piper. I want to talk to Piper. I want to talk to Piper."

He continued this for a minute or two, but he gave up when he opened his eyes. Did Piper not want to talk to him? Sylis tried to think back to what Piper said. She had apologized, but what for? She had said/thought the words so quickly he couldn't understand them all, but the one thing he got was the words: mama, telepathy, and contract.

What could it mean?

Sylis placed down his briefcase on his long, outstretched legs, opening the fasteners. He took out his computer and then a single piece of paper. It had their signatures on the bottom and in the midsection the contract upon which they agreed.

Mr. Sylis Penn Youngblood will protect Miss Lilin Odella Cozbi and Miss Piper Irene Cozbi from Miss Lilin's ex-boyfriend. He will act as a bodyguard*.

*Mr. Sylis Penn Youngblood will have to follow his client and her daughter everywhere they go. This includes the nighttime. Housing and other living expenses will be partly provided by the client.

It was a simple contract and yet it seemed too simple for someone of his occupation level. That was why he had accepted it. Being a bodyguard wasn't that difficult compared to his current job, right?

Mama, telepathy, and contract: these were the words that Piper had said. But what did they mean? He closed his eyes and concentrated—the method was actually working like a charm. Mama, the first word, Piper was the one who said it and thus it was in reference to the ever lovely Lilin Cozbi. The woman in question was strange indeed. She could be described as quirky and yet loving to her daughter. Her parenting was questionable with her not caring much about guns or the way she gives her child peanuts as a reward for nothing, but it wasn't that bad.

Telepathy was the second word he got from the string of a sentence. Piper had the power of telepathy which included the following: Mind Reading, Imitative Mind Reading (verbally mimicking the thoughts of others), Psychic Communication, and Telepathic Speaking. Though these were only the ones that Sylis had seen or witnessed. He couldn't know if she had more powers or if she was only limited to the bunch listed.

Finally, the contract. The second word was connected to the third word, surely. The first time that he saw the contract it had no asterisk. It wasn't just a simple mistake of not seeing a small symbol, but the whole asterisked paragraph was immediately under the original contract so he would have had to pass the extra paragraph to go down to the signatures, and a paragraph that size would not be something that Sylis would miss.

With the evaluation of all three of the word separately, Sylis combined all of them and came up it this explanation:

"Lilin made Piper use telepathy on the contract—more like my brain—to make the asterisked paragraph disappear off the contract so I would sign the paper." But Sylis had one more question. "What would make someone go to such lengths to get me as their detective turned bodyguard?"

Then, Piper stood in front of him. Sylis's news pooped up at the sight of her and he would have backed up to a wall if he was not already resting on one.

She looked as pretty as a ghost. Her dress was an off shade of white making it the palest of red. Her blonde hair gently danced in the zephyr. "Mama calls it Knowledge Erasure."

Sylis took a deep breath. If his colleagues saw him they would definitely think he was mad if they didn't already. He moved his laptop to the concrete on his side, the electronics had fallen sideways as his knees rose in surprise. "Piper, what are you doing here?" He stood up, using the wall for support.

"Mama, calls this a Mind Image." Piper walked closer to him, so she was looking at his face a few feet above her. "You can see me, but I'm still at home." She held out her hand and Sylis reached out to grab it, but his hand went through only solidifying the falsehood that she was an apparition.

She pulled something that Sylis couldn't see. It was a bag of peanuts—their bag of mixed nuts. She popped a few in her mouth and munched on them with a grin on her face. "Papa, do you remember the night I called you my Peanut Papa?" Sylis nodded his head because there was nothing he could have done differently. "You don't know it, but you became one of the first people I Mind Linked with who wasn't Mama or Tia Lilith. Mama also calls this process im-prin-ting."

Imprinting was when a child of a species recognized another being whether that be an animal or thing as a parent or other object of habitual trust. So it was official, she saw him as her father. It was evident because of the recent name-calling.

But now he had her name.