but be ready for a couple of days of sniffles."
"Wonderful." I sighed. "I just want to sleep for the rest of the day now, and it's not even noon."
"Too bad. Alistair wants to congratulate you personally for this."
"Really? Can't it wait?"
"You'll have to deal with it."
Chapter Seven
I went from having no free time to all free time in the space of a week. Midterms were over, my roommates were often away with their girlfriends, and my training schedule was erratic at best. Absynthe apologized and gave me exercises to do by myself, but never explained why she didn't have time to train me herself. After congratulating me on the successful mission, Alistair hadn't been in contact. Even the student council group was quiet, our final meeting of the trimester two weeks before everyone switched into finals mode.
Nikki had also congratulated me on not fucking up the mission. I had chatted with her a few times since then. Each time she kept the conversation light, not addressing anything serious between us, but she gave me a hug the last time we spoke. The one time I brought up our relationship, she said she was still thinking and dealing with things, and that she'd let me know when she was ready. With that in mind, all I could do was wait.
While I waited, I kept searching PSInet for juicy information. I avoided the Illuminati pages for the first couple of weeks. I didn't want to take any risks that someone was tracking my access. Tonight, I felt safe enough and opened up their Resistance wiki I hadn't had time to look through yet. The summary was the first page I hit. To my surprise, the Resistance was younger than I was. Their first open act took place when I was twelve. Ever since then, they had kept relatively quiet, not claiming credit for many things, but the Illuminati had dug in enough to make educated guesses about what they had done.
Their cell system hadn't been broken. Ever. I took that with a grain of salt. The Order operated in a cell system too, and their structure was rotten to the core. The Illuminati believed the Resistance structure depended on computers and a master server operating somewhere on the dark net. Examination of captured Resistance computer didn't reveal any clues. The wiki put forth a few theories, the most popular of which was that Resistance leadership used psionic communications to provide their members with the necessary encryption keys to access the network. Another theory stated that the network was a complete red herring and they coordinated through other means. I chuckled. Star had been on her computer daily. Their network existed.
Unlike other organizations, the Resistance stayed quiet. There was only one public announcement on file, a bland statement of purpose. They stood against tyranny, they would act to make sure that other factions would not abuse their psionic abilities, they would fight those would enslave normal people, so on and so forth. Star had said as much. I sighed and tried to scrub her from my brain, but my current relationship status let her pop in more and more often.
The next page held a roster of their known members. The list was too short. I reloaded the page, but it was just as short as before. Todd Green, their leader and founder, was the only highlighted name on the list. I read his biography and shuddered. He had been part of an unnamed organization in the US, and due to disagreements with their leadership, he broke ties with them and went into hiding. Probably the Bureau. About six years later, he made their single public statement after the first known Resistance action. After that, they acted around the world, but primarily in the US. No other public statements were on record.
The Illuminati classified him as likely still living. He'd be around fifty years old these days. The page stated, "Green is a clear and present threat to all psionic organizations. His statement regarding a 'psionic aristocracy' is a clear threat to the eldest organizations. If
"Wonderful." I sighed. "I just want to sleep for the rest of the day now, and it's not even noon."
"Too bad. Alistair wants to congratulate you personally for this."
"Really? Can't it wait?"
"You'll have to deal with it."
Chapter Seven
I went from having no free time to all free time in the space of a week. Midterms were over, my roommates were often away with their girlfriends, and my training schedule was erratic at best. Absynthe apologized and gave me exercises to do by myself, but never explained why she didn't have time to train me herself. After congratulating me on the successful mission, Alistair hadn't been in contact. Even the student council group was quiet, our final meeting of the trimester two weeks before everyone switched into finals mode.
Nikki had also congratulated me on not fucking up the mission. I had chatted with her a few times since then. Each time she kept the conversation light, not addressing anything serious between us, but she gave me a hug the last time we spoke. The one time I brought up our relationship, she said she was still thinking and dealing with things, and that she'd let me know when she was ready. With that in mind, all I could do was wait.
While I waited, I kept searching PSInet for juicy information. I avoided the Illuminati pages for the first couple of weeks. I didn't want to take any risks that someone was tracking my access. Tonight, I felt safe enough and opened up their Resistance wiki I hadn't had time to look through yet. The summary was the first page I hit. To my surprise, the Resistance was younger than I was. Their first open act took place when I was twelve. Ever since then, they had kept relatively quiet, not claiming credit for many things, but the Illuminati had dug in enough to make educated guesses about what they had done.
Their cell system hadn't been broken. Ever. I took that with a grain of salt. The Order operated in a cell system too, and their structure was rotten to the core. The Illuminati believed the Resistance structure depended on computers and a master server operating somewhere on the dark net. Examination of captured Resistance computer didn't reveal any clues. The wiki put forth a few theories, the most popular of which was that Resistance leadership used psionic communications to provide their members with the necessary encryption keys to access the network. Another theory stated that the network was a complete red herring and they coordinated through other means. I chuckled. Star had been on her computer daily. Their network existed.
Unlike other organizations, the Resistance stayed quiet. There was only one public announcement on file, a bland statement of purpose. They stood against tyranny, they would act to make sure that other factions would not abuse their psionic abilities, they would fight those would enslave normal people, so on and so forth. Star had said as much. I sighed and tried to scrub her from my brain, but my current relationship status let her pop in more and more often.
The next page held a roster of their known members. The list was too short. I reloaded the page, but it was just as short as before. Todd Green, their leader and founder, was the only highlighted name on the list. I read his biography and shuddered. He had been part of an unnamed organization in the US, and due to disagreements with their leadership, he broke ties with them and went into hiding. Probably the Bureau. About six years later, he made their single public statement after the first known Resistance action. After that, they acted around the world, but primarily in the US. No other public statements were on record.
The Illuminati classified him as likely still living. He'd be around fifty years old these days. The page stated, "Green is a clear and present threat to all psionic organizations. His statement regarding a 'psionic aristocracy' is a clear threat to the eldest organizations. If
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