Part III

"What are you talking about preacher?" said Aaron angrily.

"I think judging by being around River for as long as I have, and by what you said in your story it's very unlikely that the alliance could use her abilities in such a way. I believe Reader's have limitations the same as everyone else. Judging by your story I would estimate that two of those would be focus and distance. If they were capable of reading anyone's mind anywhere, then why would they bother to remove you from the holding cell? Really if they were capable of not only reading your mind, but also killing you with thought, why would federal marshals attack the resistance strongholds? Why wouldn't the reader's just kill everyone in there and not risk a confrontation."

"Too many voices make the song hard to hear." said River as if the answer was plain.

"I would guess that the reason they took you one by one was that they couldn't achieve the same sort of goal unless there were several reader's all focused on one individual. Not only that, but they had to even be in the same room, so it's unlikely that a reader could reach targets across a planet."

"There isn't any other explanation." said Aaron. "They must be doing it."

"Actually there is a much simpler explanation." said Book as he turned Aaron's head to the side exposing a small discoloration of skin behind Aaron's left ear.

"What is that?" asked Simon as he moved in to take a closer look.

"It's a tracking device of sorts. It's very advanced. The metallic components are so small that they can't even be noticed at a casual glance unless you know what to look for. They are also covered in organic tissue so you could walk through a scanner and it wouldn't be detected. Everytime you made contact with the resistance they had you tracked. No mind tricks, no reader's, they didn't need them. They just followed you right to their targets."

Wash picked up Book's bible. "Ya know Captain maybe we should all read this. I was never much of a religious man, but I mea