Caged (Talented Saga)

by Sophie Davis

  While I was fairly confident that Grace was telling me the truth since I was compelling her to do so, I also searched her mind for any traces of fabrication. I could tell that there was something she was holding back, but decided not to dig too deeply just yet; I wanted to see inside Rider’s head first.

  Rider’s version of events matched Grace’s to the tee. Still, I could feel that he also wasn’t telling me something. His guilt was stronger than hers, so I dug into his mind first.

  “Rider, do you know Ian Crane?” I asked bluntly.

  “No,” he stammered. “I’ve never met him. I just know about him.” Rider’s blue eyes were wide and innocent looking. I scoured his brain for any signs that he’d met Ian Crane. Finally, seeing nothing, I continued with my questions.

  “Are you a spy for the Coalition?” I demanded. I didn’t see a point in beating around the bush. Grace gasped behind me.

  “What?!” Rider exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with shock. “Of course not!” His tone was indignant, but the images in his mind were scared.

  Rider imagined himself being dragged by two large, faceless men to stand before a judge while she declared him a traitor. Then his mind jumped to scenes of himself strapped to a gurney while an executioner in a black hood injected a dark liquid into his arm.

  I sighed. I could take his morbid images as a sign of guilt, but I had a feeling that he just had an overactive imagination. “Rider, what aren’t you telling me?”

  He hesitated. I was tempted to regain control of his mind and force him to answer me, but images of Ernest in his hospital bed clouded my vision. I needed to be careful; I couldn’t handle it if I turned another innocent person into a vegetable. Gently, I probed Rider’s brain. At last I saw what he was hiding take shape in his mind.

  “What about the encryption seemed off?” I demanded before he could decide whether or not to tell me the truth. My throat felt tight; I knew that this was going to lead me somewhere.

  Grace gave a strangled little yelp behind me, but I didn’t break my focus on Rider.

  “Tell me, Rider,” I ordered. I took control of his mind, not caring about the consequences anymore.

  Rider was weak-willed, thank God, and he relented quickly.

  “The encryption was kinda low-level for that type of information,” he answered.

  “What do you mean low-level?” I pressed, narrowing my eyes in concentration.

  “Well, I’m a pretty strong Higher Reasoning Talent.” His blue eyes shifted over my shoulder to where Grace sat. “I mean, I am an Elite, so I can basically crack any code.”

  “I know what it means to be an Elite,” I snapped. I could feel the adrenaline starting to pump in my veins, urging me into some kind of action.

  “Well, Grace isn’t,” he said softly. “She’s actually an Extremely Low-Level Talent.” He gave her a miserable, apologetic smile, like he couldn’t believe what he was saying. Suddenly, I got it. The whole scenario flooded to the front of his consciousness.

  Rider helped Grace cheat on her Placement Exams, so that she’d be assigned to the Cryptos and they could be together – they were in love. They’d requested to work together, and volunteered for less-desirable assignments so that Rider could manage most of the workload. All they wanted was to be together, and they’d known that Grace would have been assigned to a remedial position if she ranked poorly on her Placement Exams. Both Grace and Rider knew that the encryption wasn’t very advanced because Grace had easily decoded the transmission.

  Earlier, I’d misread Rider’s images of being branded a traitor; he was feeling guilty. He knew that if anyone ever found out he’d helped Grace cheat, there would be repercussions. Rider felt horrible because he’d chosen to keep their secret instead of admitting that there was something amiss with the encryption. The guilt was eating him up inside; he thought if they had said something then I might not have been sent to Nevada, and I might not have been hurt. He’d never imagined that his omission would have such grave consequences.

  I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. The desire to lash out at both of them was so strong that I wasn’t sure how much longer I could suppress it. I wanted to scream obscenities, let them know just how much their love affair had cost me. Did they really think that keeping their secret was worth risking my life?

  Taking control, I tried to swallow my anger. I needed to stay focused right now. Screaming at them wasn’t going to help. I didn’t know what the punishment for cheating on your placement exams was; but if I had to guess, it was probably a stiff reprimand and reassignment to a more fitting division. Neither penalty was sufficient in my opinion.

  When I looked from Grace to Rider, I saw unbridled fear. The terror emanating from them was palpable. While the prospect of being separated worried them, it was the fear over the punishment that terrified them. Although I was confident that they wouldn’t be declared traitors to the government and executed, I had to wonder if maybe the consequences were more severe than reassignment.

  “I promise I won’t tell.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Was that really a promise that I was prepared to make? Their lie had cost me my future with the Hunters, and nearly cost me my life. If I hadn’t gone to Nevada, I wouldn’t have been injected and I wouldn’t be plagued by seizures now; I didn’t want something like that to happen to someone else.

  When I saw the grateful looks that they gave me – and the lovey-dovey eyes they made at one another, the fear hovering right below the surface – I knew that I couldn’t expose their secret. I would figure out a way to ensure that they weren’t assigned any more high-profile cases, but I wouldn’t tell. Briefly, I considered willing them to forget my interrogation, but I decided against it; I wanted them to remember how scared they were, how close they’d come to being discovered. I wanted them to know better next time.

  Heading back to my room, I pondered the level of encryption. I couldn’t explain how I knew that it mattered, yet I was certain that it did.

  I’d just finished gathering my belongings to leave for the hover hangar when I heard a knock on my door. I opened my mind – Penny.

  “Hey,” I called brightly. “You’re just in time to walk me to the hangar.”

  “I got your message. Where are you going?” she asked curiously.

  “Headquarters,” I answered. “I’m going to interview the other two people who were working the night that the intel came in about Crane.”

  Penny’s face fell. “Why? Haven’t they already been interviewed? Submitted full reports?” She seemed a little jittery.

  “Well, yeah, but not by me. I want to dig around a little bit, see what I can find.” I smiled at her.

  Penny frowned.

  “Tal, look. I know that you’re really trying to figure this out, but the Director brought me here to go through the personnel files and look for a hack in the network because all of the intel checked out. It was legit. Ian Crane was in Nevada just like we thought he’d be. Nothing at all was unusual about the intel.”

  Her voice was firm, and I suddenly felt silly for getting so excited about the low-level encryption. Her features softened when she saw the dejected look on my face.

  “Tal, you know that I want to find this person just as much as you do. I want them to pay for what happened to you, but I just don’t really think that this is productive.” Her green eyes shone with unshed tears.

  I was so touched by her concern that I almost told her that she was right, that I wouldn’t go chasing wild theories. But I couldn’t; I knew that the encryption was important. I felt it with every fiber of my being. I just needed to connect the dots.

  My brain was murky, but I had this feeling that something important hid beneath the surface. Something good? Something bad? I didn’t know. I just knew there was something.

  “I really value your opinion, but I know that this is going to lead somewhere. I can feel it.” A thought struck me. “Penny ...you didn’t tell Harris about my mission, did you?”
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  Penny fixed me with a steady gaze, full of hurt that I would even ask. Shame clouded my brain.

  “I would never have done that!” Penny exclaimed, sounding truly wounded by my inquiry.

  “No, of course, you didn’t. I just wanted to cover all my bases,” I replied lamely before letting the subject drop. I was relieved that she hadn’t. Harris had been a good friend to Donavon and Erik for years, and I hated the thought of having to question him.

  “Why don’t you at least let me fly you out there?” Penny asked hopefully.

  “Thanks, but Mac already arranged someone.”

  When we got to the hangar, I instantly regretted not taking her up on the offer. A small two-seater hover car was pulled out of one of the hangar bays, and a tan, broad-shouldered guy with shaggy blonde hair stood next to the opened driver’s side. He was dressed casually in dark jeans and a white t-shirt tossing the keys lazily in the air. Crap. Donavon.

  “Tal,” he greeted me coolly, but gave Penny a dazzling smile. I wanted to kick him.

  “Donavon,” I matched his icy tone.

  Penny gave me a quick hug, which I returned without taking my eyes off of Donavon’s. “Call me if you need anything,” she whispered.

  “Thanks,” I whispered back.

  Penny moved away from the plane, but didn’t leave. She watched as I slowly walked over to my side of the vehicle and hoisted my bag, then myself into the passenger seat. I gave her a small wave while Donavon made a great show of clamoring noisily into the driver’s seat. Once he was settled, I risked stealing a sidelong look at his face. His jaw was clenched, the muscles in the back moving almost imperceptibly as he ground his teeth together. A white, gauze bandage was wrapped around his right hand. As soon as I noticed it, the earlier shame and humiliation returned. I had bitten him. What was wrong with me?

  He turned the key in the ignition with way more force than was necessary. The engine gave a loud, screeching whine in protest of the display of strength. He jammed his right foot down so hard that the vehicle shot forward, sending me flying back against my seat. I grumbled audibly. Donavon didn’t acknowledge my presence, let alone say he was sorry. This was going to be a very long ride.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  No matter how angry Donavon seemed, I knew that his hurt feelings were the root of his animosity. He’d thought that we were working out our issue, then Erik showed up. He blamed Erik for telling me about the blood transfusion, but I wanted him to know that it wasn’t Erik’s fault; Donavon had no one to blame but himself. And it wasn’t just the transfusion - he’d lied about so many things that I didn’t know how he could expect me to forgive him.

  I busied myself reviewing the old interview reports for Grace, Rider, Jennifer, Cal, and even Penny. Grace’s and Rider’s reports were exactly as I’d expected. They were both interrogated by a Mid-level Telepath named Sandi Yardly, and the reports included a narrative almost identical to the one that both Cryptos had given me. Sandi concluded that both were telling the truth, but noted that low levels of deception were present in each interviewee. She’d indicated that their dishonesty was a result of the relationship of a “sexual nature” between the two. She made it sound so clinical.

  I wondered if the official reports on my destruction of Donavon’s cabin alleged that my actions were the result of a relationship of a “sexual nature” between us. I shuddered; I really hoped not – how humiliating to have that on record.

  Moving on, I saw that Cal, Jennifer, and Penny’s reports were consistent with what I already knew. Penny had helped me prepare for the mission, so I was pretty well acquainted with what had transpired on their end that week. Mac and Captain Alvarez had personally interviewed all three while Sandi watched through the two-way mirror. She concluded that none of the three was hiding “anything remarkable.” She believed that each gave the best version of events “as they knew it to be true” – whatever that meant.

  None of the Cryptos had commented on the encryption being unsophisticated. I wasn’t surprised to learn that; if they’d said something, it would’ve been investigated. I was pretty sure that the only reason Rider admitted it was because the person who’d been harmed by his omission asked him directly. Also, I hadn’t simply read his mind like Sandi; I’d been controlling it, digging through his memories. He really hadn’t had a choice.

  Mac annotated Penny’s evaluation to explain that “Operative Latimore’s feelings of dishonesty are related to the unauthorized assistance that she provided for Hunters’ Pledge Natalia Lyons.” Oopsy. Now if I was ever cured, not only would I have to answer to the Placement Committee for totally screwing up my solo mission, but also for accepting outside help – Pledges were supposed to plan and research their solo assignments alone.

  “Everyone cheats. The committee won’t deny your appointment just because you had help on your solo assignment.”

  Donavon’s voice startled me so much that I jumped slightly in my seat. I’d connected my communicator to the small computer in the passenger-side dash since the screen was larger. Apparently, Donavon was reading them, too.

  “I wasn’t worried about that,” I shot back, haughtily. Obviously I’d just been contemplating that very notion, but I hated the way that Donavon sounded all-knowing.

  “Whatever, Tal.”

  The tension in the cramped space increased exponentially. This ride needed to end now.

  Thankfully, we were almost to Headquarters. When we did finally touch down, fifteen minutes later, I grabbed my bag and jumped out of the vehicle as quickly as I could mentally pop the door lock.

  Captain Alvarez was waiting for us outside the hangar.

  “Lyons, McDonough, how are you?” he asked as Donavon exited the car, slowly and much more gracefully than I had.

  “Good, thank you, sir,” I responded with a tight smile.

  “Glad to be back on my old stomping grounds, sir,” Donavon answered cheerfully. Apparently his surly mood was reserved exclusively for me.

  “Good. I have rooms in the guest tower for both of you. Natalia, it’s my understanding that you want to speak with two Crypto Operatives?”

  “Yes sir, as soon as possible,” I replied quickly.

  “Director McDonough called ahead and asked me to track them down. They’re both waiting for you in an interrogation room in the main administrative building.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled.

  “Follow me,” he said before turning to Donavon. “McDonough, I trust I’ll see you again before you head back to school?”

  “Of course, sir.” Donavon inclined his head slightly in a show of respect.

  “Find me whenever you’re done with this fishing expedition,” Donavon sent me in a tone that displayed anything but respect.

  “Whatever,” I sent back.

  Following Captain Alvarez across the lush Headquarters grounds, I inhaled the earthy scent of the dirt and trees and the sweet smell of the tiny flowers that grew along the stone pathways. A sense of longing filled me; I really missed being here.

  The Captain led me into a small building, and then down a short hallway to the right. He held the door to the main room open to let me pass through. Cal and Jennifer were seated in separate interrogations rooms. Both were visible through the two-way mirror in the larger exterior room, but a thick, soundproof wall divided the interior rooms. I watched both Brains through the glass for several long minutes.

  Cal was in the room to the left. He sat hunched over, his shaved head resting in large hands. I was surprised to find that I didn’t recognize his coffee-colored face and dark brown eyes when he finally withdrew his head from his palms. I just assumed that I would’ve seen him with Penny at some point. While his skin was smooth, untouched by age, I knew from his file that he was thirty-five. He was well built, like a Hunter, and tall; even sitting down, I could tell that he was at least Donavon’s height.

  As I studied his body language, his eyes darted nervously around the room. His mind buzzed steadily, in
dicating a great deal of brain activity, which was actually typical of most Brains that I encountered. Their minds were always churning, constantly working, analyzing every detail of a given situation.

  When I was done analyzing Cal, I turned my attention to Jennifer. She was younger than Cal – twenty-eight according to her file. Stringy black hair hung limply around an extremely pale face with deep-set, dark eyes, and she hugged her bony arms around a boyishly skinny frame. I’d seen her several times with Penny when I was a Pledge, but couldn’t recall having ever exchanged more than pleasantries with the girl.

  Since Cal was the one who’d actually found the data originally, I decided to start with him.

  Captain Alvarez took a seat in one of the comfortable chairs on the exterior side of the mirror as I made my way into the room on the left.

  “Cal Simmons?” I asked when I entered.

  “Yes ma’am,” he replied in a deep southern drawl.

  “I’m Talia –,” I started to say, but he cut me off.

  “I know who you are.”

  “Then you probably know why I’m here?” I continued.

  “You want to know about the Nevada Crane intel?” he guessed. He didn’t look nervous, but vibrations of uneasy energy tickled my skin.

  “I do.”

  The exchange was enough for me to latch on to his brain patterns. I knew that Sandi had already gone the telepathic route, but I was a much stronger Talent, and I didn’t want to compel the answers out of him unless I was sure that it was necessary. Besides not wanting to irreparably damage his mind, I hadn’t been exercising my mental muscles since being away from the Hunters and had yet to recover the energy that I’d expended questioning Grace and Rider.

  “Was there anything strange about the intel?” I asked.

  When Sandi questioned Rider, he hadn’t mentioned the encryption, so Mac hadn’t known to ask Cal and his team about it. Whether it was the mounting guilt that the lovesick Brains now felt, or because I really was that much better than Sandi, I couldn’t say. Since I knew what questions to ask, I felt that there was no reason to play coy.