Voice Read Online Free

and dislikes. Jemma looked back up at Dr. Harris as he typed.
    “That subject has also been injected with the same drug as you have. I want you to try to make contact with her. Go ahead and try, as soon as you’re ready.” Dr. Harris looked at his watch, noted something on his clipboard, then shifted his attention to the monitor. Josh’s attention, meanwhile, was already on the monitor. He watched, his shoe tapping the tiled floor.
    She looked back down at the photo. She’d never been able to Talk to somebody this way, without having ever met before. It had been easier, even, to have physical contact. Talking to somebody from just a photo and some basic description? She took a breath.
    The woman had red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had bright eyes, but Jemma couldn’t quite tell whether they were blue, green, or gray. If the woman was captured, as the injection implied, the photo had been taken before that, in an open field, and judging by the way she looked at the camera, her eyes soft, her smile inviting, the person who’d taken the picture had been someone she cared about.
    Her name was April. She was 21. She lived in Tacoma, Washington, and she liked to play basketball.
    Jemma focused on all of these facts while staring at the photo before finally she tried to make contact.
    “Hello?” She held her breath at the echo. It had actually gone through.
    “Who’s there?” April sounded annoyed. Her voice was rougher, lower than Jemma had expected.
    “I’m Jemma. I’m at another one of the labs. They’ve injected me, too. They asked me to try to make contact.”
    “Are you a prisoner or a volunteer?” April’s voice on the last word virtually dripped with condescension.
    “Prisoner.” Jemma suspected her monitor might reveal that to be less than the whole truth, but when she glanced at Dr. Harris and Josh, she saw them watching excitedly, not seeming to care that she had fudged the truth some. She really was closer to a prisoner than a volunteer, anyway, even if she had returned on purpose. “You?”
    “What do you think?”
    “You’ve successfully made contact, Jemma?” interrupted Dr. Harris, and she nodded. “I’d like you to ask her to confirm some things. Ask her the name of the scientist overseeing her session right now.”
    “They want to prove we’re really Talking,” she sent. “They told me to ask the name of the scientist overseeing your session.”
    “And you want to go along with them? Do what they say?” April sent disbelief.
    Jemma felt a sudden stab of sympathy for Katherine. This must have been how Jemma had come across when she hadn’t wanted to cooperate. “To an extent, yes. I refuse to be a puppet, but they’re the ones who caused the Event. They need to clean it up, and to do that, they need information. Information they can get by studying us. I’m helping where I can without feeling like a complete pushover.”
    Again, it wasn’t the full truth since Jemma felt like she was helping beyond that point, but it was the spirit of the truth. Her head felt full, open, the throbbing lacing with the opposing feelings to make her a little dizzy. She focused again as April responded, a little more subdued this time.
    “Jasmine is my scientist’s name.” When Jemma relayed the information, spelling the name in large letters in the air, Josh jumped, almost a dance in place. Dr. Harris’s eyes widened briefly before he composed himself, nodding at his clipboard, taking notes, and returning his attention to the monitor. “What do they want us to do next?” Some of April’s spirit had returned, and Jemma felt a smile tugging at her lips.
    “They haven’t said. They can’t tell exactly what we say, and they can’t control everything we do. I think they’re just trying to study different connections right now. How long have you been there?”
    “Pretty much since the telepathy started. I’ve lost track of time.”
    Months. They’d held her captive for months .