The Talents

by Inara Scott

  I nodded. He looked so grave, so serious, that I got a little scared. If I could put someone into a coma, and I didn’t even know what I was doing, think about what I could do with a little training.

  Cam continued his explanation. “Before we start formal training, we subject candidates to significant stresses and challenges, and we investigate their reactions. We cannot risk training someone who will use their powers for evil. So we watch and wait. That’s why we do the wall and other group experiences. At the beginning of sophomore or junior year we invite those students who show they can be trusted to join the program.”

  He approached my seat in the window well and put a hand next to my knee. Then he leaned forward until I could feel his breath on my face. There was so much information coming at me, I could barely take it all in, but at that moment, all I could think about was Cam saying that the reason he hadn’t tried to be more than friends was because of the Watcher thing.

  It was enough to make me dizzy all over again.

  “Throughout all of it, we have a network of Watchers monitoring the progress of each candidate. Some are teachers, like Mr. Fritz, who watch candidates in the classroom. Most are other students, like me and Trevor and Anna. We each get assigned a handful of candidates, and we find ways to spend time with them. We participate in activities with our candidates, offer to help with homework, and observe them in the dining hall. Although each of us is assigned specific students to watch, we work together closely so we don’t make anyone uncomfortable. For example, Anna might keep an eye on you during cross-country, while I might be there for you at lunch.”

  I swallowed hard. “So someone’s watching me all the time? Pretending to be my friend and then taking notes about the things I say or do?”

  “You’re making it sound worse than it is. Most candidates don’t know about their talent, but they do know they’re different. They’ve often been ostracized or bullied for the very gifts that we want to encourage. They need extra attention. We’re giving them that attention. We don’t watch because we want to hurt anyone. We watch because we care about our candidates. We want to be there for them. And if they start going down the wrong path, we need to know that too.”

  I wasn’t entirely convinced, but Cam’s face was so open and sincere, it was hard to doubt that he believed what he was saying. “Does everyone have a Watcher?”

  “Not exactly. The teachers, advisers, and team leaders do some reporting on every freshman. Technically, you’re all candidates. But the reality is that most people never get past Level Two. Only a handful of candidates will be brought into the program, and we usually know who those people are before school even starts. Those are the ones who are given an individual Watcher.”

  “Are you watching Jack?” I had to ask, even though his very name felt like taboo.

  “We all watch Jack,” Cam said grimly. “We know too much about him not to. But officially he’s assigned to Trevor.”

  My gaze darted around, meeting his and then pushing back, like the wrong end of a magnet bumping against another. “Okay. So what’s the program?”

  “Different things for different people. There’s basic lessons, learning more about how talents work, the forces that they utilize, that sort of thing. After that you specialize. For me, it’s learning how to read the vibrations I feel, how to identify more about a candidate than simply whether they have a Level Three Talent or not. They think maybe I can learn to tell from the time I recruit someone whether they can be trusted in the program. You’ll learn about the forces you can control, and make sure you know exactly what you’re doing so your talent doesn’t end up hurting anyone.”

  That made me shudder. I had hurt people. For years, I had hurt people every time I used my talent. Did Cam know that? What would he think of me if he ever found out?

  “What happens to the ones who aren’t asked to join the program?” I said.

  He turned around and rested his back against the edge of the windowsill, staring forward as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Most of them never figure out what they could have been. They go through Delcroix, get trained in a lesser talent, and go on with their lives. The ones that do figure it out, well, that’s why the program exists in the first place. To protect the rest of the world from the ones who would do harm.”

  I looked down at my hands. “And you think I could do that? Help protect people?”

  Cam reached over and laced our fingers together. My hand appeared small and white, almost fragile next to his. “We don’t really know what you’re capable of, Dancia. But when you’re upset, even the air around you sparkles. That day in Mr. Fritz’s class, when you had the trip-to-the-moon activity, you did something that felt like an earthquake. I practically busted down the door of the girls’ bathroom, I was so worried about you. Mr. Fritz had to call me off and get your friend Allie in to check on you instead.”

  A part of me melted into the window well. Cam had been worried about me.

  He smiled and turned back toward me. The corners of his eyes crinkled, and my stomach fluttered. “There’s extraordinary power in you. We just have to find a way—carefully—to unleash it.”

  I don’t know what might have happened then, because the sound of feet tromping up the circular staircase broke the silence. A head emerged from the floor below, then another. First Trevor, then Anna, then two other people I vaguely recognized from the lunch table.

  “Holy shit, Cam. What’s going on?” Trevor demanded.

  Anna’s eyes bugged out. She looked at Cam, then me, then our hands still knitted together, her face growing whiter by the second.

  Cam straightened but didn’t let go of my hand. “I thought you guys were going to the woods today.”

  “It started raining.” Trevor ran up the last few steps and threw up his hands in disbelief. “Jesus, Cam, I know you like her, but have you lost your mind?” He glared at both of us, his eyes blazing. Normally I would have been terrified, but his wrath seemed reserved primarily for Cam. “We watch and protect, Cam. This isn’t protecting. This just exposes her to more danger.”

  Cam’s hand tightened on mine. Stupid as it was, that tiny piece of confirmation from Trevor meant more to me than almost anything Cam had said. Besides, it was oddly comforting to think that Trevor—scary Trevor—was looking out for me. If I hadn’t been completely freaked out by the group of them staring at me, I think I would have smiled.

  “You don’t understand,” Cam said, shooting me a quick look. “She figured it out herself. Most of it, anyway. I was just filling in a few details. Not that it really matters, because we all know it’s just a matter of time before she’s up here with us. And I would stand for her. Right now if necessary.”

  “How could you stand for her?” Anna demanded. “You barely know her. And what about Jack? She’s attached to him. I know it.”

  Cam’s mouth set in a hard line. “I’m her recruiter and her Watcher. I know. Besides, you’ve heard her history. She’s already shown how she’ll use her talent. And trust me, Landry isn’t a problem.”

  Clearly, “stand for her” meant something important, which was pretty cool. Still, it pissed me off to have Anna and Cam discussing Jack and me. I wondered how many times they’d done that since school started, and got even madder. Watching me for a few months at school didn’t mean they knew me—or Jack, for that matter. They didn’t know how he helped me when Catherine was so mean I almost lost it. They didn’t know how we studied together and explored the school together.

  They didn’t know how terrified he was of being followed.

  And what did Cam mean when he said that Jack wasn’t a problem?

  I hated to do it, but I pulled my hand free from Cam and jumped off the windowsill. “I should go,” I muttered, and started to make my way around the group.

  Anna put her hands on her hips and glared, though I couldn’t tell if she was directing her anger more at Cam or at me.

  Trevor raised a chilly eyebrow. “Dancia, whether you l
ike it or not, Cam’s just made you one of us. Leaving won’t change that.”

  Cam walked over and stood at my side. “Trevor’s right. You’re part of a new team now. For better or worse.”

  From the other end of the hall, an unmistakable voice boomed. “Cameron! What’s going on here!?”

  Mr. Judan had arrived.

  “DELCROIX IS affiliated with two other training programs in the United States, and several others worldwide. Most of the teachers here, though not all, are familiar with our true mission: to develop extraordinary talents and see that they are put in service to the good of humanity.”

  I squirmed in the lush velvet armchair Mr. Judan had directed me toward upon entering his office, wishing I could pace the floor like Cam. The large windowless room was surprisingly opulent, with elegant brass lamps, an antique-looking loveseat, and portraits of men wearing old-fashioned suits and neckties, and women in high-necked lacy gowns.

  “Principal Solom and I are also members of the Governing Council, which oversees the activities of Level Three and Level Four Talents across the globe. The Governing Council sends our talents to help in cases of natural disasters, wars, and other extremely dangerous situations. Although we do not show our face publicly, you can rest assured that were it not for the council, over the past few years, India and Pakistan would have set off a nuclear holocaust, thieves would have raided a chemical weapons plant here in Washington, and a little germ known as Ebola would have led to the deaths of thousands, perhaps millions, on the East Coast. We do these things by direct intervention and by preemptive attack; our Watchers allow us to monitor the activities of dangerous people and ensure their plans never come to fruition. In fact, the Watchers—a program I initiated, by the way—are the council’s most important weapon in preventing harm to the people we protect.”

  “You mean there are grown-up Watchers? Watchers outside of Delcroix?” I asked.

  A look of pure self-satisfaction crossed his face. “Watchers are the cornerstone of our new security program. Some very motivated students, like Cameron, begin training to become Watchers while they are in school. Others train after they graduate. Either way, they must complete an exhaustive course of education in everything from foreign policy to martial arts. When they are done they will be able to operate in any country, in any situation. Their goal, quite simply, is to ensure that their targets do not endanger the lives of those around them. Of course, it’s always a struggle to find and train enough qualified Watchers to keep track of all the dangerous people in the world. Watchers must be flexible, be able to go anywhere, and deal with any emergency.” I looked at Cam, imagining him as a cross between Superman and James Bond. He lowered his eyes but smiled, as if he were both pleased and embarrassed by Mr. Judan’s words. “They monitor everyone from political dictators to your friend Jack Landry, and must be ready to react to any situation.”

  I pictured Jack, running from Sunglasses Guy that day before school had even begun, and recoiled. “Wait a minute, you were watching Jack before he came to Delcroix? What’s wrong with Jack? He’s not a dangerous person. Why were you watching him?”

  Mr. Judan sat behind a dark oak desk. He tapped a pencil gently against one hand as he spoke. “Watchers follow known threats and young people who have been identified as having potential Level Three Talents. We’ve been following Jack Landry since his father accused his four-year-old son of threatening to choke him with invisible chains. Reports like that are usually dismissed by the police, but we tend to take them seriously. We’ve known him to use his talent repeatedly since then.”

  Somewhere between Trevor’s appearance on the steps leading to the secret library and the booming sound of Mr. Judan’s voice, I had begun to sweat, and now a tiny trickle slipped from my temple down my cheek.

  When had they started following me?

  “But his dad is a horrible man. You can’t blame him for trying to defend himself,” I insisted.

  “Jack has led a difficult life, that’s true. But that life changed him, and something inside turned from the good. We brought him to Delcroix because we had to see if he could be channeled safely. But now we’re certain he cannot.”

  “You barely know him,” I cried. “How can you be sure?”

  Cam and Mr. Judan exchanged significant looks. Cam knelt down in front of my chair. “Jack’s done a lot of things he probably hasn’t told you about, Dancia. He’s a member of a gang—a serious one. We don’t think he’s done anything illegal since he’s been in Danville, but it’s only a matter of time. He’s dangerous. Not only to himself, but also to people around him.”

  No he’s not! I wanted to scream. He’s a good person inside, I know he is! But I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t doubt Jack was capable of breaking the law. He’d told me he’d stolen cars. I just knew there was more to him than that.

  “I was willing to give him a chance,” Mr. Judan interjected, “but things have gotten much more serious. Early this morning Jack broke into the program library and stole two books.”

  “How do you know it was him?”

  “We don’t know for sure,” Cam admitted, “but there’s traces of him all over the library. I could feel it.”

  “The books that Jack stole contain information he could use to unlock his talent,” Mr. Judan continued. “We must get those books back. We’ve already searched his house but didn’t find them. We think he may have hidden them somewhere.”

  Mr. Judan stared at me with one eyebrow slightly raised. I drew back against the chair. He seemed to be asking me a question. “What?” I whispered.

  “Dancia, I can’t say I approve of Cameron having made the decision to bring you here”—he reserved a little frown for Cam—“but we knew having you and Jack together at Delcroix in the same year would cause some…complications.” He enunciated the word as if it left a sour taste in his mouth.

  I bristled at the implication that either Jack or I had done something wrong. “If you don’t like having me here, I’ll leave.”

  A tiny, humorless smile crossed his lips. “I don’t think so.”

  I breathed an inward sigh of relief. As bizarre as everything seemed, and as weird and unsettling as Mr. Judan and the whole Watcher thing was, I desperately wanted to stay at Delcroix and be a part of the program. They believed talents like mine could be used to protect people. It was all I had ever dreamed of—for my power to be useful and to keep people from harm. I wouldn’t have to hide and be guilty. I could be proud of who I was and what I did.

  “But we do have expectations of our students,” he said. “And now that you’ll be joining the program, you’re going to be a part of something far bigger and far more important than anything you’ve ever known.”

  His eyes bored into mine. I glanced away nervously, briefly catching Cam’s stare, which was just as intent. They wanted something from me. And I had a bad feeling I knew what it was.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jack must be stopped.”

  There, it had been said.

  “Are you going to kill him or something?” I blurted out.

  Mr. Judan’s eyes were cold. “Our job is to watch, and to do everything in our power to make sure those with talents don’t hurt other people. Right now that means getting those books from Jack before he learns something dangerous.”

  Acutely aware that he hadn’t answered my question, I said, “Jack and I aren’t talking right now. I have no idea where he might have hidden your books.”

  “Surely you could find a way to speak with him. If you could convince him to bring the books back quickly, we wouldn’t need to worry quite as much.”

  “Look,” I said flatly, “Jack’s got this thing about being watched. It makes him crazy. He knows you’ve been following him, and he hates it. If he does have the books, I can’t imagine what I could possibly say to him that would make him want to give them back.”

  Mr. Judan steepled his fingers together and rested his chin on them. He stared at me for a minute,
then opened a red ledger on his desk and started making some notations in it.

  Without looking up, in an almost casual voice, he said, “You seem to have strong feelings for Jack. That’s understandable. We even anticipated that might happen. But I need to have those books back by tomorrow morning. Any later than that, and I’ll have to assume the worst. We only have a few Watchers in town right now, but there are more on the way. What happens next is really up to you.”

  Cam headed back down the circular staircase at a quick but controlled pace. I followed, with considerably less grace.

  “Where are we going?” I demanded.

  “We’re going to Jack’s house. Mr. Judan and some of the others have already searched it and can’t tell where he might have hidden the books, but you might see something we didn’t.”

  “Don’t I get any say about it? Maybe I don’t want to go hunt down Jack like he’s some kind of criminal. The whole Watcher thing is a little creepy, don’t you think?”

  Cam spun around, something like hurt appearing in his voice. “We aren’t creepy, all right? It’s a job. A really important job. And if you care about Jack, you’ll help us get those books back before the other Watchers get into town. If you think I’m bad, wait until you see the professionals. Jack has the potential to affect hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. They aren’t going to just let this go.”

  I immediately regretted what I had said. I’d forgotten that Cam was training to be one of them.

  Was one of them.

  “What will they…” I wanted to ask what will they do with Jack? but I wasn’t sure that Cam could answer that question. Or that I wanted him to.

  I stayed quiet after that. Part of me was terrified by Mr. Judan and everything Delcroix now seemed to represent. But the other part rippled with excitement. A chance to learn to use my power—this time for good. A chance to be on a new team, as Cam had put it. They all seemed so sure of themselves. Like they had the answers. It would be so nice not to have to worry about the answers for a change.