Miles of highway condense together in your head as you watch the yellow lines pass under you. You hated long drives, especially with passengers that don’t appreciate your music taste. You reached into the console and pulled out your pack of cigarettes with the lighter inside. You put the last cigarette in your mouth and tried to light it but with no success.
“Almost got it,” you whispered to no one in particular. You kept steering with one hand as you grabbed the lighter and lit it, letting the smoke escape out the slightly cracked window. You were almost coordinated enough to use your telekinesis to smoke.
To your right sleeping in the passenger seat was your resident telepath, Denise. Sprawled out in both seats behind you was the precog, Cassandra. That’s how you knew it would be an uninteresting trip, based on how relaxed she looks. It was just going to be a routine mission, a snatch and grab. You didn’t care for the details of who you were kidnapping, you only knew he was a natural psychic. He must have been caught in the act of using it, intentionally or not.
About one percent of the population are born with a certain organ attached to their brain stem known as the Sigmata. Most who have it won’t even realize they are mutants with its effect being so weak. The powerlifter who unknowingly channels telekinesis into his muscles to help with his lift or the charismatic celebrity who everyone loves for no particular reason, both examples of natural born psychics that are harmless. They can still far outperform any non-mutant but have modest achievements and don’t break the veil of secrecy. On the other hand there are some psychics who have to be controlled, the pyromaniac who realizes if he focuses enough he can start a flame with his mind or the dictator who could compel people to commit genocide with his voice alone. To make these people disappear is the job of the secret government organization known as the Department of Psychic Studies.