“Thornton is planning to bring the pathfinder to us tomorrow, is that right?”  Ross didn’t look away from the window when he asked the question.

 

He sensed more than heard Kalil step up beside him.  “That’s the plan.  Nila’s leading the extraction team that’s going to bring him in.”

 

Ross nodded, feeling a flutter of excitement in his chest at the thought of it.  Thornton was one of Mosaic’s moles who worked within the Agency, which was one of Mosaic’s strongest adversaries.  They were a society of scientists, built out of the scattered remnants of the city’s original Founders, who once upon a time sought to conquer the world through the pursuits of science, art, engineering, and higher learning.  Not much of a threat to Mosaic standing on their own of course, but they had a force of genetically engineered soldiers they called sweepers who were more than capable of standing up against the best soldiers Mosaic could throw at them.

 

The Agency had been the first to discover the existence of pathfinders, because they were the only ones who had access to the Founders’ original research records.  The Founders, in their relentless quest to improve the human species, had created a genetically altered strain of humans with an enhanced telepathic ability which they named pathfinders.  The pathfinders were useless on their own, however, falling prey to the psychic onslaught of their visions and succumbing to catatonic trances where they drifted away and eventually died.

 

The Founders responded to that threat—not by leaving well enough alone—but by creating a second strain of test subjects they called “guides”, whose genetic code was stitched with the ability to form a psychic/emotional bond with the pathfinders and keep them grounded inside of their physical bodies.  The bonds were forged with close proximity and physical contact—the more intense the physical contact, the deeper and more permanently binding the bonds turned out to be.

 

“I’m looking forward to meeting him,” Kalil said.  There was a low rumble in his chest when he said the words that sounded suspiciously like a purr.

 

Ross smiled to himself.  Kalil, he had discovered, was a descendant of the Founders’ original guides.  He had a genetic predisposition to form a bond with a pathfinder, if they could only find one to pair with him.  That particular obstacle had begun to feel well-nigh insurmountable, but Ross had learned through Mosaic’s intelligence network that the Agency had recently acquired a new pathfinder and brought him in to live with them at the Agency fortress of Edgeress.  The pathfinder was a blank slate just waiting to be molded and used; he would have doubtlessly been paired with a suitable guide out at Edgeress already, but after just the few days he’d been in their custody, their bond should turn out to be easy enough to break.

 

Anything could be broken, if you applied the right amount of leverage.

 

The pathfinder was going to be Ross’s crowning achievement.  He tried to imagine what it would be like to share the kind of psychic and emotional intimacy he’d read about when he was researching the pathfinder/guide bond, and felt a shiver of mingled longing and dread at the thought of it.  While it would doubtlessly be entertaining to have that kind of intimate control over another human being, he didn’t think he would appreciate the reversal of that equation, which would give the bonded pathfinder insight into his own interior landscape and drives.

 

Not that it was an option for him in any case.  “Is everything prepared for his arrival?”

 

“Yes.  Once he gets here, he won’t be leaving again.”

 

The calm competency in Kalil’s voice was reassuring.  Ross closed his eyes briefly and allowed himself a shiver of anticipation at the thought of what lay ahead of them.  With a pathfinder firmly under Mosaic’s control, he would have an edge over his adversaries that could not be stopped, or even anticipated.  It was going to be a whole new world, and Ross planned to be there personally to be the one to profit from it.

 

“It’s an interesting time to be alive, Tom,” he said, staring down at the busily moving figures on the street below them.

 

Kalil huffed a soft breath of laugher where he stood at Ross’s side.  “Yes, sir.  It certainly is.”

 

Staring out across the city, Ross watched the night come in.