Death of an Adept

"You'll do fine," McLeod reassured him. "I'll talk you down. I believe Adam set you some posthypnotic triggers, to help you settle?"

"Aye."

"We'll assume they're the usual ones for our mob, then. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, Harry, and let it all the way out," he said, setting his hand on the counsellor's wrist as he complied. "That's it. Let go and relax, let yourself center and focus."

He paused as Harry took another deep breath and softly exhaled.

"How're you doing?" he asked.

"All right," Harry said with a faint nod.

"Good. Now reach out with your right hand and touch his shoulder."

Harry obeyed, his hand immediately recoiling as if stung, his eyes popping open.

"Jesus!" he whispered under his breath.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, but there's some nasty stuff here," came the whispered reply. "I don't know if I can do this, Noel - not and have to worry about our friend back there."

McLeod glanced over his shoulder, then back at Harry.

"All right. There's a way to do this that might offend your dignity, but it should get the job done. Do you trust me?''

"Aye, you know I do."

"All right, we're going to shift to advanced student mode," McLeod replied, reaching into his pocket for his Adept ring, which he slipped onto his finger with the stone turned inward. "I'll try to buffer some of this for you. I want you to close your eyes again and settle back deeper into trance. When this is over, you're not going to remember any of this until I tell you to," he added, as Harry's eyes closed obediently. "There's going to be some backlash, by taking the information this way, but it's going to look like you just got queasy from being so close to a dead body, and passed out. Don't back out on me now, Harry. Are you willing to do this?"

Harry's head dipped minutely in assent, clearly deep in trance.

"All right, when I take your wrist, you're going to go twice as deep as you are now; and when I lift your hand and touch it to the body, I want you to imagine a door opening - and it won't close until I lift your hand again. What comes into your mind while the door is open may be shocking, even horrifying, but it can't touch your essence. You're perfectly safe." He glanced again at Singh, who was bent over the autopsy report with Adam. "Nod when you're ready to do it."

Harry drew another deep breath and slowly let it out, then gave a faint nod. Without hesitation, McLeod seized his wrist, making certain his ring made contact with bare flesh, and lifted Harry's hand to touch the corpse's shoulder.

Harry stiffened, a faint gasp escaping his lips. McLeod let him tremble for a count of five, then lifted Harry's hand from the contact, shifting to catch him under the elbow as he reeled and buckled at the knees.

"Sleep now, Harry," McLeod whispered, "and lose this until I tell you otherwise." And then, in a louder voice, "Jesus, Harry, haven't you ever seen a dead body before?"

The inspector's cry, plus the flurry of motion as he caught Harry under the arms and began hustling him to a nearby chair, brought Adam and Singh at once.

"I expect it's the smells," Adam said to Singh, improvising as he came to bend over Harry with McLeod. "He said on the way here that he was feeling a little fragile today. Something about a friend's bachelor party last night, I believe." He patted his pockets, then turned to Singh in appeal. "I don't suppose you've got some smelling salts around here somewhere? I should imagine this happens all the time."

Singh snorted and went over to a desk to rummage in a drawer.

"Yes, but it's usually young police officers, fresh out of training."

He returned to bend beside Adam, snapping an ammonia capsule between thumb and forefinger and passing it under Harry's nose.

"Steady, Harry," Adam murmured, laying his hand across the counsellor's brow as the dark head jerked back in reflex from the pungent smell, eyelids flickering on the edge of consciousness. "This happens sometimes. Take a deep breath. You'll be fine."

Singh made another pass with his ammonia, and Harry came fully awake, though his eyes had a vague, unfocused quality about them.

"Jesus, I'm sorry, Adam," he murmured. "I don't know what came over me. Noel and I were talking about the case, and suddenly everything began to spin."

"No matter," Adam said. "I think we're about finished here anyway, aren't we, Noel? Dr. Singh is letting me take away a copy of the forensic report."

"Aye, I'm done," McLeod replied. "And I don't think you'll get any argument from Mr. Nimmo."

Out in the car park, Harry collapsed into the back seat with a bewildered sigh, still rubbing at his temples from time to time, making room for Adam to sit beside him as McLeod turned to face them from the driver's seat. They were parked well over toward the side of the car park, and not apt to be disturbed.

"We might as well retrieve this now," McLeod said, with a speaking glance at Adam. "It's clear he got an almighty wallop in there. We did an open-door capture, Adam. You want to handle it, or shall I?"