Part 1: Wake Up Call

The alarm was what started to wake me up. What finished the job was the gradual realization that I had nothing planned for the day, so I hadn't set the alarm. I looked over from my position on the bed, and immediately regretted it. 4:30 in the morning.

"Uhhnn… you gonna get that, baby?" A heavily accented, extremely sexy yet tired, voice uttered this from my left. I looked that way with a slight smile.

"Yeah, got it." I tried to roll out of bed, only to find my leg was still trapped in a scissor lock with her legs, and her arm was still across my chest. "Can I have my leg back, Marita?" After she shifted position enough for me to move, I rolled out of bed and stumbled across the room to the phone.

"Whoever this is has about ten seconds to convince me it's important. Otherwise I will kill you." Maybe not the best way to start a phone conversation, but nobody calls me that early and gets away with it.

"Is this Mr. Lucius Kemp?" The voice was masculine, and such a deep bass that I almost felt it more than heard it. For no reason I could actually understand, I assumed the caller was black. At least he pronounced my name correctly.

"Yeah, that's me. You have about five seconds left."

"Not over the phone. Too many ears listening. Meet me outside your place in an hour." Now what the hell could he possibly mean by that? 'Too many ears listening?' And I thought I had the corner on paranoia.

"Why in the world would I do that?"

"Information on the eyes and the ears all around you. Trust me, it's important." Damn. I was finally awake, and now my curiosity was getting the best of me.

"Fine, I'll be there. How will I know who I'm looking for?"

"Don't worry, I'll know you." With that rather ominous statement, my unidentified caller disconnected.

After putting the coffee on, I took a quick shower and shaved. All the while I was recalling what had been said about the eyes and ears surrounding me. After the shower, I poured a cup and resumed thinking, glancing at the clock to realize I still had 45 minutes of that hour left.

Some people get thrown a genetic curve ball. Many illnesses have a genetic factor, among as other issues. In my case, the genetic twist didn't manifest physically, but in a different manner. Physically, aside from my eyes, which are grey with green rims, I am plain vanilla. However, I have been gifted, or cursed if you want to look at it that way, with a unique ability. I am able to mentally manipulate light.

One of the many side effects of this ability is that, with just a couple minutes to prepare myself, I can quite literally see the world differently than anyone else. I do this by shifting my vision into the so-called "invisible" light spectrum, allowing me to see in the ultraviolet and infrared ranges.

Closing my eyes, I made the shift into the infrared. Although this wasn't likely to help me find any microphones, there was at least a chance I would see something from the cameras. Quietly walking through the loft I found four. It looked like they were positioned to give the best possible range throughout the apartment. Well, except that one aimed at the bed. Someone got a free show last night.

Closing my eyes again, I allowed myself to shift back to normal vision. Walking back to the bathroom, I swallowed a couple migraine pills. Humans aren't meant to see into those ranges, and forcing myself to do so always leaves me with a killer migraine.

Anyway, there was no need to shift to the ultraviolet, as I had my answer. Somebody had their eyes and, probably, ears on me. My immediate instinct was to beam all the cameras, but I stopped myself just before doing so. First of all, I wasn't certain that those four were the only cameras, or even the only devices, installed. It was conceivable that there were other devices I had not located which would see me doing just that. More importantly, whoever had planted those cameras in the first place had already proven themselves capable of entering my loft, completely unobserved, and installing them. If I destroyed the ones I found, which were only found because of my caller, replacing them would be all too easy. I wasn't overly happy about that fact, but there it was.