CHAPTER TWELVE
“Hello, Miss Daniels, how’s the ankle?” Mr. Brookfield asks.
Why has the director come to see me?
He lets himself into my room and stands near my bed. I inwardly cringe when I look up at him. His eyes are like daggers piercing into me, well, more specifically into my chest. If he’s trying to lock eye contact, he needs to be staring about eight inches north of where he’s looking. Instinctively, I fold my arms across my chest as if I were naked.
“A little tender but not as sore as my face.”
I know my face is still bruised. I can feel it. I also know it’s probably a stupid idea to try and be a smartass to the man who’s in charge of my life, but I want him to feel bad about what he’s allowed to be done to me. It may not have been his hands that bruised my face, but he has the power to stop it, to prevent it from happening again. Searching his eyes for any sign of remorse, I see nothing, just a blank look of boredom.
“We’re sorry about that.”
Yeah, I’m sure you are.
“You have to understand that it was imperative to find out what you can do. We needed to run those tests and trials in the safest manner possible so you wouldn’t be a danger to yourself or to others. You do understand that, don’t you?”
He not only doesn’t feel sorry about what I’ve been through, but he’s defending it and thinks that I should agree. I want to say no, I don’t understand, but I have a feeling that will just bring more torture upon myself.
“I guess” is all I can muster.
“But you won’t need to worry about that, now we know what you can do.”
“What?” I ask. “You do?” My heart pounds. Tate told me before I was brought up here that I don’t want them to know what I can do, and now they’ve figured it out. My body begins to tremble, but I concentrate on making it calm down. I pull my blanket up and act as if I’m cold to explain the shivering.
“Well, we’ll have to prove the theory, but you needn’t worry, the test won’t be anywhere near as invasive this time.”
Oh great, more “tests.”
“We’re fairly confident you’re able to amplify other people’s abilities around you. We were trying to figure out what happened yesterday, I spoke to a few of the scientists in our lab, and while it has never been heard of before, new abilities seem to be showing up all over the place. It would certainly explain a lot. It would explain why you were unaware that you’re Defective, why you’ve never shown any symptoms, and why Ty was able to levitate that high while he was touching you but hasn’t been able to do it since. It would make sense, wouldn’t it?”
Thinking about it for a moment, it does make a lot of sense. It would also explain why Tate can hear more thoughts when we touch … but why can I do these things, too? Why was I levitating with Ty, and why can I hear everyone’s thoughts when I’m with Tate? I want to know, but I don’t think Mr. Brookfield is the right person to ask those questions.
“Maybe … but how are you going to test that?” I ask.
“We’ll get to that, right now you need to concentrate on getting better. I’ll set something up for later in the week.” He smiles his charming tour day smile—the one I’ve always thought looks forced and not genuine.
The Institute Page 27