savage pain, deep in the unprotected heart. "Tell me about Peter Sandza."
"MORG also had his son. The other half of the twinship. They had convinced Robin that his father was dead, that he was virtually an orphan. The better to bond with him, gain control. They did their best to eliminate Sandza. But he was as ruthless as the men MORG sent after him. A trained assassin, with the cunning of a hunted man. I visited both of the rooms in which they slept together. I have no psychic ability, butâI could imagine it happening, deep into the night. His own need. Gillian's beauty, her youth and vulnerability. Gillian was barely fifteen. I forgive him for that. I truly hope . . . it was Peter Sandza, because the alternative . . . too dreadful. I've never wanted to think about Robin coming to her. So corrupted. Driven insane by the collective efforts of the researchers at Psi Faculty to enhance his already-considerable paranormal talents."
"But Gillian told me that she and Robin never met. They were only in touch through psychomorphic channels."
"They knew each other intimately ."
"How?"
"When Gillian came home from the hospital, after she'd had her first clairvoyant experience and fainted on the ice rink in Central Park, she was changed. A different child altogether. Sullen, evasive, brooding. She locked herself in her room for hours at a time, practicing her flute. Then she would listen to rock music, so loud I thought it would bring the roof down. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I made Avery pick the lock on her door. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the drapes were drawn. Quite dark in the room. Gillian lay across her bed, partly covered by a sheet. She was naked. She didn't appear to be breathing. I panicked, thinking she had died. Avery wouldn't let me touch her. My husband was a respected anthropologist. He told me she wasn't dead. Neither was she there , and he warned me not to disturb her body. He said that she was in a state of ... tonic immobility. A deep trance. The loud music was one aspect of the ritual that allowed her astral body to travel. Avery had a great deal else to say, about the metapsychical systems of tribes he had studied on three continents. About material bodies and astral bodies. He mentioned a word, the first time I had heard it. Doppelganger ."
"Her mirror image. But only a double, unless she chose to give it a life of its own. Gillian told me it could be done merely by bestowing an alternate name on the dpg. She also said that it was a dangerous practice."
"I think it's likely that Robin Sandza's doppelganger, named or unnamed, visited Gilly, at that time when she was just home from the hospital and inexperienced, unguarded. Too trusting. He, or it, visited and may have seduced my daughter. Once I learned that she was pregnant, I consulted psychics. Having become a believer. They all agreed that there is sexual intercourse in the Astral, but they disagreed that conception can occur. Could a doppelganger father a human child? No answers."
"But they are, supposedly, exact replicas of their homebodies. Who does this girl named Eden look like?"
"She favors Gillian, thank God."
"Gillian had powers beyond our comprehension. If Robin Sandza was Eden's father, what must she be like? She could beâwhat? A saviorâ"
"Other psychics call the rare ones 'Avatars.'"
"Infinite in faculty. In apprehension how like a god."
Sherard paused, silenced by implications. Katharine made of his stillness an opportunity, moving from her seat to sit on the floor by him. Fluid in movement in spite of her years. The disciplines of yoga and the StairMaster, tennis on weekends. She put a forearm across his knees, her head resting on her arm, pose of subjugation. Contrived, of course, but not unpleasant. Her artifice a corollary of privilege.
"And you gave the child up for adoption."
"I had to. I chose her adoptive parents very carefully, culling the candidates from nearly every state, Canada,
"MORG also had his son. The other half of the twinship. They had convinced Robin that his father was dead, that he was virtually an orphan. The better to bond with him, gain control. They did their best to eliminate Sandza. But he was as ruthless as the men MORG sent after him. A trained assassin, with the cunning of a hunted man. I visited both of the rooms in which they slept together. I have no psychic ability, butâI could imagine it happening, deep into the night. His own need. Gillian's beauty, her youth and vulnerability. Gillian was barely fifteen. I forgive him for that. I truly hope . . . it was Peter Sandza, because the alternative . . . too dreadful. I've never wanted to think about Robin coming to her. So corrupted. Driven insane by the collective efforts of the researchers at Psi Faculty to enhance his already-considerable paranormal talents."
"But Gillian told me that she and Robin never met. They were only in touch through psychomorphic channels."
"They knew each other intimately ."
"How?"
"When Gillian came home from the hospital, after she'd had her first clairvoyant experience and fainted on the ice rink in Central Park, she was changed. A different child altogether. Sullen, evasive, brooding. She locked herself in her room for hours at a time, practicing her flute. Then she would listen to rock music, so loud I thought it would bring the roof down. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I made Avery pick the lock on her door. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the drapes were drawn. Quite dark in the room. Gillian lay across her bed, partly covered by a sheet. She was naked. She didn't appear to be breathing. I panicked, thinking she had died. Avery wouldn't let me touch her. My husband was a respected anthropologist. He told me she wasn't dead. Neither was she there , and he warned me not to disturb her body. He said that she was in a state of ... tonic immobility. A deep trance. The loud music was one aspect of the ritual that allowed her astral body to travel. Avery had a great deal else to say, about the metapsychical systems of tribes he had studied on three continents. About material bodies and astral bodies. He mentioned a word, the first time I had heard it. Doppelganger ."
"Her mirror image. But only a double, unless she chose to give it a life of its own. Gillian told me it could be done merely by bestowing an alternate name on the dpg. She also said that it was a dangerous practice."
"I think it's likely that Robin Sandza's doppelganger, named or unnamed, visited Gilly, at that time when she was just home from the hospital and inexperienced, unguarded. Too trusting. He, or it, visited and may have seduced my daughter. Once I learned that she was pregnant, I consulted psychics. Having become a believer. They all agreed that there is sexual intercourse in the Astral, but they disagreed that conception can occur. Could a doppelganger father a human child? No answers."
"But they are, supposedly, exact replicas of their homebodies. Who does this girl named Eden look like?"
"She favors Gillian, thank God."
"Gillian had powers beyond our comprehension. If Robin Sandza was Eden's father, what must she be like? She could beâwhat? A saviorâ"
"Other psychics call the rare ones 'Avatars.'"
"Infinite in faculty. In apprehension how like a god."
Sherard paused, silenced by implications. Katharine made of his stillness an opportunity, moving from her seat to sit on the floor by him. Fluid in movement in spite of her years. The disciplines of yoga and the StairMaster, tennis on weekends. She put a forearm across his knees, her head resting on her arm, pose of subjugation. Contrived, of course, but not unpleasant. Her artifice a corollary of privilege.
"And you gave the child up for adoption."
"I had to. I chose her adoptive parents very carefully, culling the candidates from nearly every state, Canada,
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