“Strange?” he shifted his eyes to the floor. He knew exactly what I was talking about.
“The data - did you think that the encryption was too simple, considering it was about where Ian Crane would be staying?” I demanded.
Yes, flashed through his mind, but he hesitated before saying, “Not really.”
“You didn’t think that the code was ridiculously easy to crack?” I pressed, placing my palms firmly on the edge of the small table.
Yes! His mind screamed so loudly that I was certain I couldn’t be the only one who heard it.
“It was crude encryption,” he answered, tentatively.
“Does data involving Ian Crane’s whereabouts normally have crude encryption?” I fired back.
Anger and annoyance were starting to control me. Why was everybody lying about the encryption? Why was this so important? Why couldn’t anyone just admit that there’d been something strange going on? Why did none of these imbeciles realize how much damage could be caused by omitting a detail like that?
“No, not normally,” Cal admitted.
“Why didn’t you say anything at the time? Didn’t you think that it was odd enough to warrant saying something?” I hissed through clenched teeth. I was now leaning over the desk, my face inches from Cal’s ear. His face was still turned down, looking at some non-existent spot on the table.
“The information was important. Teams had been searching for this type of intel, praying to intercept communications about Ian Crane’s whereabouts. And I did. I found out where he was going to be; I cracked the codes that led to us finding Crane in Nevada.” He met my eyes for the first time, urging me to understand.
I did. He was proud of what he’d done. He felt triumphant that he’d been the one to intercept such an important communication. He hadn’t been able to contain his delight when he called in the find. He’d thought that he would be promoted. I understood completely. He’d risked the safety of another Operative for his own advancement; he’d risked my safety for his own advancement. I snapped.
“You cracked the codes that led me to Nevada! You cracked the codes that led me into a trap!” I screamed, not caring that I was going completely off the rails with Captain Alvarez watching from the other side of the mirror.
“I didn’t know,” he stammered. “I didn’t think ...I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” Tears welled up in his dark eyes.
“Obviously you didn’t think!” I shrieked, unable to control my emotions.
I wanted to hurt him, wanted to reach across the inches that separated us and strangle him. Instead, I bore into his mind. Digging out the memories from that week, I searched for anything that would connect him to the Coalition. I didn’t find even a scrap of evidence supporting the notion that he was either in league with the Coalition directly, or a supporter of Crane’s objectives. I dug deeper. I knew it was risky. I didn’t care.
Cal’s mind told the tale of a small boy who’d come to McDonough School when he was five. He’d proudly left his home in Florence, South Carolina, on collection day when government officials collect all of the children who tested positive for Talents and take them to the School.
Like me, Cal spent his whole childhood training to become a Hunter. He’d, of course, known that he was a Higher Reasoning Talent since his testing results, but he’d never thought that meant he couldn’t become a Hunter.
After his junior year in school, he’d taken the examinations to become a Hunter. He hadn’t even bothered to take the Crypto test. His arrogance at choosing only the Hunters made me squirm; I’d also put all my eggs in the proverbial Hunters’ basket.
Surprisingly, he’d been chosen to Pledge. However, Cal’s team captain hadn’t reported favorably on his performances during the several missions he’d been a part of. He wasn’t recommended for permanent appointment to the Hunters. Cal never even got to go on his solo mission; he’d been dropped as a Pledge weeks before then.
Luckily for Cal, he was an Elite-level Higher Reasoning Talent. When Cal was dropped from the Hunters’ Pledge class, the head of the Crypto unit offered for him to complete his Pledge year with them. He’d accepted, and even managed high marks from his mentor. Cal received an official appointment to the Crypto Division after graduation and eagerly accepted it. Still, his failure with the Hunters nagged at him; he was desperate to prove himself. So desperate, in fact, that he was willing to overlook a glaring, almost fatal inconsistency in the data.
Disgusted, I drew back out of his mind. I felt dirty after witnessing such raw ambition. He was pathetic. Suddenly, I found it difficult to be in the same room with him. I stared straight into his slightly dazed, wholly terrified eyes. I might not have robbed him of memories, didn’t thoroughly demolish his subconscious the way I’d unintentionally destroyed Ernest’s, but I knew that my interrogation hadn’t been painless. I hadn’t meant for it to be.
I could gently sift through a person’s mind without them knowing that I was there. Digging deeper without their knowledge was a little harder, but not impossible. But from the moment I knew that Cal was lying to me, I’d wanted him to know how powerful I was. I wanted him to know that no matter how good he thought he was, I was better.
Part of me knew that I was being just as egotistical as he had been, wanting to prove my worth to him like he’d wanted to prove his to Mac. It was silly; our Talents weren’t even similar, not comparable at all – mine were much cooler.
“You make me sick,” I whispered in a low, threatening voice. I was so close to him that I swore I could feel a tiny woosh as the dark hairs on his arms stood at attention. Pushing back from the table, I turned and walked through the door to the observation room, clenching my hands into fists to stop them from twitching.
“Are you alright?” Captain Alvarez asked when he saw me enter the observation room.
“I will be,” I replied tightly.
His dark forehead was creased with worry, and his nearly black eyes shone with an unreadable expression.
“You have every right to be mad,” he said quietly.
“Did you know him? When he was a Pledge?” I inquired. I hadn’t intended to ask, but suddenly I wanted to know.
“I did. I’d been hesitant to take him. His physical abilities were decent – he did well on his combat examination, wasn’t too bad with weapons either. But I didn’t really see the point in wasting his God-given gifts. The Talent evaluation showed that he had an off-the-charts level of Higher Reasoning. I’ve only ever seen one other person test so high,” he mused.
I didn’t need to read his mind to know that he was talking about me. I’d felt Cal’s strength the moment I walked into the room. It was partially what made me so desperate to display my own; the parallels made me uneasy.
“I’d like to speak with Jennifer now,” I said, chewing nervously on my lower lip.
“You can take a couple of minutes if you like. She isn’t going anywhere,” Captain Alvarez replied gently.
I gave him a tight smile. “I want to get this over with.”
Jennifer had been staring nervously at the door, and when I walked in, her small eyes immediately lit up with recognition and her posture relaxed slightly.
“Hey, Jennifer.” I tried to sound pleasant.
“T-t-Talia,” she stuttered.
“Did they tell you why you were asked to come here?” I didn’t waste any time with her either.
“Captain Alvarez said that someone from the Interrogation Division needed to talk to me. I didn’t know that you’d been reassigned.”
“Yeah, me neither,” I answered dryly, giving the two-way mirror a snarky look. “I need to ask you some questions about the intel that you intercepted.”
“The stuff about Ian Crane?” she guessed, her anxiousness increasing.
The claustrophobic room was making my senses even more acute than usual. I could smell the slightest hint of body odor, could see the tiny beads of perspiration beginning to form along her hairline.
“Yes, the
stuff about Ian Crane,” I replied, stiffly. Her brain activity was all over the place, her thoughts racing over the week before my ill-fated mission.
“Was there anything off about the intel?”
“I already answered a bunch of questions,” she squeaked.
“I know that you did,” I soothed, trying to put her at ease. “I’m just following up on some leads. Was there anything off about the intel?” I repeated, more firmly this time.
She hesitated only briefly before answering, “Kinda.”
Her honesty gave me pause; I hadn’t expected her to admit anything without more prompting.
“What was strange about it?” I tried to stay calm. I could feel that she wanted to tell me. Jennifer was like an overinflated balloon, ready to pop with the guilt that she’d bottled up inside, so I waited. I was mentally drained. If she wanted to tell me on her own – without me having to pick it out of her head, I would wait all night. Besides, three people had already confirmed that there had indeed been something off with the intel.
“Well, the encryption was crude. It was way too simple, nothing that you’d expect from information about President Crane’s whereabouts. Usually, anything having to do with Crane is impossible to decipher. We’re normally only able to decrypt like every third word - it never makes any sense, but this information wasn’t like that at all. It was easily identifiable,” she rambled, her pinched face contorting like she’d eaten something unpleasant.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I demanded.
“I did,” she urged. “I told Cal. I told him that we should look into it, that something was off.” Tears began to pool in her eyes.
“What did Operative Simmons say when you told him that?” My jaw was so tight, I was surprised that the words slipped through my teeth.
“He said that it wasn’t a big deal. He said that someone in Crane’s organization must’ve messed up and that we were lucky to intercept such valuable information. Cal said we’d be promoted,” she wailed. The tears started to flow down her cheeks, and I almost felt bad for her. Maybe if I hadn’t been shot and poisoned as a result of her mistake, I would have been more sympathetic.
“Did you report it to anyone else?”
“No,” she hiccupped. “I wanted to. I really wanted to.” She was a fairly strong projector; she showed me exactly how Cal had threatened her when she’d suggested telling. Her inability to take a stand against him, her weakness, nauseated me.
“So you never reported it?” I pressed, the calm in my voice surprising me.
“No,” she cried harder. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She hugged herself with her twig-like arms, her body racked with sobs.
I didn’t probe further into her head; there wasn’t a need to do so. Her guilt was flooding into my mind, almost suffocating me. I needed to get out of that room, needed to get away from her before I did something that a moral person would later regret. I turned around and yanked the door open, fleeing to the observation room.
I inhaled deeply through my nose, exhaled long huffing breaths through my mouth. My head was spinning so fast. Collapsing into one of the chairs sitting against the far wall, I wedged my head between my knees.
Why hadn’t someone said something? Rider had cited love. Cal claimed ambition. Jennifer was just plain weak. I couldn’t decide who I wanted to throttle first.
“I know that it probably doesn’t change anything, but Cal and his team weren’t promoted,” Captain Alvarez said gently. “In fact, now we’ll launch a full investigation into all three of them.”
Three of them? Oh, right - Penny.
“Penny was just a Pledge. If Jennifer couldn’t stand up to Cal, there’s no way that she could have.” I was quick to defend her even though my attempts felt lame, even to me. “Maybe she didn’t even realize what was going on.” Penny was an Elite Talent; there was no way that she hadn’t known. Even if she didn’t say something to Cal, why didn’t she say something to me? Why hadn’t she warned me that I might be walking into a trap?
“The fact that she was a Pledge might be the only thing that saves her from suspension, or worse.”
The way he said it sent fingers of fear skittering down my spine; what was the “or worse”?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Still shaken from the interrogation sessions with Cal and Jennifer, I walked aimlessly in the general direction of guest housing. In the past twelve hours, I’d learned more than I had in all the weeks I’d spent observing the Instructors and sifting through Operatives’ files. Unfortunately, I had no idea what any of it meant.
What did Grace cheating on her Placement Exams, Cal’s ambition, and Jennifer’s spineless nature have in common? Why did four separate people – five if you counted Penny – lie about the same thing? Was that a coincidence?
It was late and I was exhausted, but I knew that sleep would prove impossible. Instead of going to guest housing, I made my way to Erik. While I doubted that he’d be able to shed any light on my findings, at least I wouldn’t be alone.
When I reached his door, I leaned my forehead heavily against the wood and knocked. There was no answer, and disappointment darkened my already black mood. I turned to leave.
“Tals?” Erik’s melodic voice called when I’d made it halfway back to the elevator.
Calm relief washed over me and a smiled unwittingly tugged at the corners of my mouth. I turned slowly back around. Erik hung out of his doorway, one hand gripping the frame as he leaned into the hall. His plaid pajama bottoms were slung low on his hips and his chest was bare. Despite everything else going on, I wanted to run over and throw my arms around him, feel the warm skin of his chest against my cheek.
“Hey,” I called back, my smile becoming a full-on grin when I met his eyes.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, beckoning for me to come closer.
His turquoise irises shone brightly even in the dimly lit corridor, and my heart pounded. Why was it that no matter how many times I saw him, or how much time I spent with him, he always took my breath away?
I ran the short distance and flung myself at him. Erik stumbled, but quickly wrapped his arms around me, pressing his lips on the top of my head. He didn’t ask me if I was okay; I think that he knew I wasn’t. With one arm still wrapped protectively around my middle, he pulled me into his room.
As soon as I walked through the doorway, I felt at home in the familiar setting. I hadn’t spent a lot of time in Erik’s room in the brief time I’d lived in the dorms – we usually hung out in mine – yet the plush navy carpeting and plaid papered walls calmed me. There was a small blue plastic table with four blue chairs in the middle of the huge room, and his bed ran the length of a scenery window. He currently had the window set to natural, so I could see the trees and lake that were situated behind the building. The full moon bathed the grounds in an odd silvery glow.
Erik led me over to his bed. He gently guided me to sit on the plaid comforter, and knelt on the floor next to the bed.
“What happened, Tal?” he whispered, running his hands up and down my arms to warm my cold flesh.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” I said, shaking my head.
Erik leaned closer, resting his forehead against mine. Thoughts of interrogation rooms and lying, cheating, ambitious, lovesick Operatives flew from my mind. I brought my lips to his, keeping my eyes open until the last second so that I could absorb the full impact of his emotions. Once his mouth was on mine, I reached to run my fingers through his hair. Erik caught my wrist and gently guided it, and me, back onto the mattress. Pinning my arm over my head, he hovered over me, his fingers laced with mine.
Slowly, Erik’s lips trailed down my chin, nestling in the hollow of my throat. The more he touched me, the more I relaxed. The tension ebbed with every kiss, and it wasn’t long before I was a puddle beneath him. He ran his tongue up the side of my neck and nibbled on my earlobe.
“What happened?” he whispered. Erik felt how upset I’d
been when I first arrived, and he wanted to know why. Even though I knew that once he saw what I’d been through, he’d stop kissing me, I dropped the barriers. As I’d predicted, Erik pulled away several seconds later. Except instead of looking worried, hysterical laughter burst from his lips.
“You bit him!” he exclaimed. “That’s awesome!”
“It’s not funny,” I retorted defensively. But the more I thought about it, the more hilarious I found it, and soon I was laughing, too. It felt good.
“Man, I wish I’d been there to see the look on his face,” Erik sighed, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
“I can’t believe I reacted like that. I drew blood!”
“You were scared. He cornered you; it was instinctual,” he assured me.
“Instinctual? Maybe for a normal person, but I’m a trained fighter. Hitting him, kicking him, even kneeing him in the balls would’ve been natural. Biting him, though? That was just crazy,” I said.
Erik’s amused expression turned thoughtful, and he shifted to take his weight off of me. He rested on one elbow, absently twirling one of my curls around his finger as his mind churned over what I’d just said.
“What?” I demanded after he’d been silent for too long. “You think that I’m nuts, don’t you?”
“Of course not, Tal,” he said calmly, pulling the curls straight and watching, fascinated as they sprang back. I wanted to swat his hand away, but his kid-in-a-candy-store expression held me back.
“Then what is it?”
“Just wishing that you’d bite me,” he teased.
This time I did swat his chest, blushing from the roots of the hair that he was playing with to the tips of my sneaker-clad toes. Erik moved so quickly that I didn’t realize what he was going to do until his jaws closed on one side of my neck. His teeth only nipped playfully at the skin, and my startled yelp quickly turned to a high-pitched giggle. Erik bit down a little harder before releasing me.
“Let’s take a walk,” he abruptly suggested.