Keri almost staggered as she connected with the subject sitting passively on the other side of the steel bars. Waves of pain and anger cascaded through her aura. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that her cousin had lied to her. She wasn't needed to read this subject to prevent them from using torture to get answers; they needed her because torture had failed. She flinched as the subject…the man…suddenly looked up and met her eyes. The laser blue gaze was unsettling, mostly because the fury that suffused him was totally absent from his expression. Whoever…or whatever…he was, he had enviable control. It was no wonder Danielle was so thoroughly frustrated. As a mover and shaker in a world of shadow agencies with questionable agendas, her cousin expected to intimidate and instill fear in her enemies. This man would give her no such satisfaction.

"Well, Keri?" Danielle asked, removing an imaginary speck of lint from her designer silk suit. "Are you getting anything?"

Taking a deep breath and reminding her straining heart that she wasn't the one who was in such horrible pain, Keri turned and matched her elegant cousin stare for stare. "It takes time, you know that. Go away and let me work."

"Just so long as you get results soon. I have a timetable to keep." Danielle paused, gave the prisoner a contemptuous look, then turned and stalked briskly out of the room.

Shaking her head, Keri turned back to face the cell and its unusual inmate. Danielle had told her that the man was a member of the new species that had been reported on the news. She could believe it. Sure, he looked human enough…the silver hair and grooves about the eyes and mouth spoke of middle age despite the apparent fitness of the body. But the feel was very wrong. Thoughts, emotions, sensations moved at incredible speed…if she didn't know better, she would have thought him hyped up on PCP or some such substance. But she always insisted on clean drug screening tests before attempting to read a subject. One nasty experience with a kid on angeldust had taught her that, and rather painfully. No, this nervous system on overdrive was apparently normal for him…for them. She tried to focus in, but could read nothing through the rage and the pain. Keri jumped as the prisoner spoke.

"Another fool looking for answers," he rasped. "Haven't you been told? I will give you none."

"I'll take what I need," she told him quietly.

He laughed; then coughed, his body bowing in pain. "And how will you do that?" he asked, a cold smirk tugging at one corner of his bruised mouth. "More drugs? More torture? No," he said confidently. "You aren't the type." He stared at her appraisingly, eyes narrowed. "You are, hmm, a behavioral psychologist."

Smiling she shook her head. "No, though I've been told I have a gift for that sort of thing. Psychometrist would be a bit closer." His left eyebrow shot up. "It's a PSI kind of thing."

"I know what it is," he said. He tried to stand but settled back onto the floor, wincing in pain.

"Do you want me to get a doctor in to treat your injuries?" she asked.

"And what do I have to tell you in exchange?" he retorted. "No, I've told you, I will give you nothing."

Keri stared at him in horror as realization set in. Not only had her cousin ordered the man tortured, she'd refused him medical treatment unless he answered her questions. She shook her head in disgust. That may be SOP for the Danielle Ashtons of this world, but she sure as hell was not going to work that way. "You don't have to tell me anything except that you want your injuries tended to. I'm not my cousin."

The man looked her over carefully. Keri sighed. "Yes, I know, I look nothing like her. She got all the beauty in the family." Her mouth set firmly. "But I got all the heart."

"I can see the resemblance. You share many features, but your heart animates yours." He frowned and commented, "Feelings are a liability."

"Whatever. Look, do you want medical treatment or not?"

"What I want has no bearing on the matter. They will not treat me."

"They'll damned well do what I tell them to do, or I won't do what they want," she told him acerbically. "Yes or no?"

He shrugged, and then winced. "Yes."

Keri nodded, got up and moved to the door, rapping sharply on it to get the guard's attention. She stepped back to let the camera pan over her and the prisoner and waited as the door slid open.

"Get a doctor down here to treat this man's injuries," she demanded.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but Ms. Ashton's orders are that he's to have no treatment."

"Hmm, tell me, do those orders also state that I'm to have anything I need to get her questions answered?" Keri asked.

"Um, yes ma'am, they surely do," the guard told her.

"Well, I can't read anything through his pain. I need the injuries treated or I'm not going to get any answers. Do you want to tell my cousin that you did not give me something I needed to get those answers?"

"No, ma'am, but…"

"Get the doctor, now. I will take responsibility."

He nodded reluctantly. "Yes, Miss Ashton." The door slid closed as he turned away.

The prisoner was staring at her when she turned around. "Quite the manipulator, aren't you? Do you often lie to get your way?"

"I didn't lie. I can't get any answers with you in so much pain. Every time I try to focus it hurts like hell. I don't even want to think about what it must feel like from your end."

He shook his head, a smile hovering on his lips. "No, you don't. I'm trying not to," he admitted.

She nodded and took a deep breath, then let it out. "That's what I was afraid of." Frowning suddenly, she asked, "What's your name?"

His laser blue eyes captured hers. "Lewis," he said.