Caged (Talented Saga) (19 page)

Luckily, I didn’t have to make any decisions tonight.
In my weakened condition, that was probably for the best.

“I know, Donavon,” I replied quietly, raising our joined hands to my cheek.
“I know.”

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning, I woke tightly wrapped up in Donavon’s arms; at some point during the night, he’d climbed into bed with me.
The memory of my seizure washed over me when I saw the angry red lines marring Donavon’s throat.

“Hey, you,” he whispered when he felt my eyes on him.
“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Okay.”
I smiled weakly. “Tired, mostly,” I added.

“Why don’t you sleep a little longer?” he asked, his brows knitting together with concern.

“I can’t,” I sighed. “I have to go to Medical before I help the Captain.” I pushed the covers back.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked, fingering his torn t-shirt.

“No, but I’m so tired of these seizures controlling my life. I just want things to be as normal as possible,” I said, frustrated.

“I know, Tal,” he soothed, running the back of his hand down my cheek.

“What are you doing today?” I asked, shrugging away from his touch.

Donavon let his hand fall.
“Helping Dad,” he said, rolling onto his back and twining his fingers behind his head.

I crawled over him to get out of bed and started toward the bathroom.

“Want to meet me for dinner?” he called after me.

I turned the cold water faucet on and began brushing my teeth to give me time to make a decision.
Did I want to have dinner with him? Before my seizure, I’d briefly hated him, but the way that he’d held and comforted me and kept me conscious during the episode made me not hate him at all. He’d sat on the floor for most of the night just to make sure I was okay.

I returned my tooth brush to the medicine cabinet and turned off the water.
Peeking my head back into my bedroom, I answered, “Sure, I’d like that.”

Leaving Donavon lounging in my room, I set off for Medical.
Dr. Thistler told me that she was increasing the dosage of the equalizer, again, then made me promise that I would refrain from over stimulating myself in the future. I cringed when I read between the lines and caught her not-so-subtle meaning. Like Mac, she assumed that physical contact had precipitated my seizure ...intimate physical contact.

Too humiliated to ask about Ernest, and resigning myself to a life of celibacy, I slid quietly off the hospital bed and left to promptly break the promise that I’d just made.
I jogged to the cafeteria in hopes of finding something left over since I’d missed breakfast. Luck must have been on my side that morning; there were baskets of assorted muffins and bagels alongside jams and flavored butters. I quickly buttered a plain muffin with cinnamon spread and happily munched on it while I walked to meet Captain Alvarez.

Today’s demonstration would take place in the open-air Arena.
An obstacle course had been set up, complete with holographic bad guys.

When I arrived, Captain Alvarez, Henri, and Erik were already there.
I stuffed the remaining crumbs of the muffin in my mouth and waved a greeting. Captain Alvarez told me to get ready as the students began trickling into the Arena. I dressed in an adapti-suit just like the day before. The suits are a dark green color; but when an individual’s body heat triggers the camouflaging mechanism, the suits blend in with, and adapt to, their surroundings.

Inside, the suit’s covering is enough to protect the feet of the wearer; but since it doesn’t provide sufficient cushioning outside, I pulled on knee-high boots made of the same material as the suit.
Next, I threaded a black belt holding eight small hand knives through the loops around my hips. I zipped the suit up to my neck, but left the hood down since it would be unnecessary for a training exercise. Erik and Henri were dressed almost identically, except for their weapons; two long blades crisscrossed Erik’s back, and Henri had a long rifle with a scope slung over one shoulder.

Captain Alvarez was busy explaining to the assembled students what they were about to see.
Overnight, the outside Arena had been transformed to include very real looking - albeit fake - trees, rope swings, bridges, and platforms. Approximately twenty flags had been placed throughout the Arena, and the goal was to collect as many as possible in a given amount of time. The holograms would be on motion sensors, triggering when one of us tripped an alarm.

When Captain Alvarez finished speaking, he turned and gave us a slight nod.
I held one hand out to Erik and one hand out to Henri. Each took hold and I closed my eyes, concentrating on both of their thoughts. Erik’s mental voice filled my head first, but Henri’s was only seconds behind. It took several more seconds before all three of our minds were linked. I released each of their hands and we entered the Arena.

“Natalia, right.
Erik, left. I’ll take center,”
Henri said, falling into his role as team captain.

“Got it,”
Erik answered.

“Ditto,”
I sent.

I, of course, managed to trip the first sensor.
The hologram appeared ten feet in front of me. I didn’t hesitate: I reached for my belt, grabbed one of my knives, and the dagger found its mark, the hologram disappearing as quickly as it had materialized.

“Okay, Tal?”
Henri asked.

“Yup,”
I confirmed.

“Got a flag,”
Erik interjected.

“Show-off,”
I teased.

Carefully, I navigated my way through the next few areas of the obstacle course.
I kept my eyes alert, dimming my other senses since it was not as though I would
hear
a hologram. I managed to uncover several flags of my own, in addition to scoring a number of points by defeating more holograms. Erik and Henri were both still working their way through their own paths. I came to a climbing wall with a thick rope dangling down the center and hand- and foot-holds off to each side. I decided to go for the rope. Approximately a third of the way up, I tripped another sensor. The hologram appeared to my right. I had only two knives left on my belt and didn’t want to waste them by throwing one from that distance and risk missing. I planted both feet on the wall and shoved as hard as I could. I swung towards the hologram at an alarming pace. I didn’t want to collide with it if it could be avoided; the holograms didn’t hurt exactly, but they gave you a strong and unpleasant shock when you made physical contact.

I struck out with the knife, releasing it from the handle when I was just inches away, and plunged it into the hologram’s chest.
The hologram disappeared, and my body collided at full speed with the side of the climbing wall. The force of the impact made me groan.

“What happened, Talia?”
Henri’s mental voice was full of concern.

“Nothing.
I’m fine,”
I grunted in reply.

“Get to the top of that wall and let’s end this in style,”
Erik sent.

Grabbing one of the handholds in the wall, I released the rope.
I scurried up the remaining two-thirds as quickly as I dared. The top was smooth and hard to grip, and my fingers strained as I scrambled to pull myself up and over the wall.

“
Tals, be ready to jump in five,”
Eric’s voice said, urging me on.

Hoisting myself the last couple of inches, I was finally able to pull my entire body onto the narrow ledge.
From this vantage point, I could see the entire obstacle course. I saw Erik and Henri crouching down on one knee, and I waited for what I knew was coming. Both boys morphed simultaneously into large black birds with beautiful iridescent feathers and long slender beaks. One bird soared over the stands of the Arena where the students were sitting. The other bird, Erik, flew toward where I stood on the top of the wall. I closed my eyes – I hated heights – and focused on my hearing and sense of touch, listening for the quiet flapping of Erik’s wings and feeling for the slight disturbance in the air that would signal his arrival.

I crouched when I heard the wings and closed my eyes tightly in preparation to jump.
Judging him to be approximately two feet out from the wall and one foot below, I leapt. I landed on my knees between Erik’s wing joints. Not the most graceful landing, but hey - at least I hadn’t missed! Rolling onto my stomach, I wrapped my arms around the bird’s neck. We flew to meet Henri and circled the Arena, flying side by side. Finally, and not a minute too soon in my opinion, we landed on the top level of the stands. I quickly jumped off of Erik’s back, thankful to have my own two feet back on the ground. The two giant birds disappeared before my eyes, and Erik and Henri materialized in their place.

When I looked down, the crowd was going wild, amazement written all over their faces.
I waved and smiled alongside Erik and Henri.

“Show-offs,”
I teased them even though I, too was basking in the praise of the students.

“You miss it, don’t pretend,”
Erik joked back. He was right; I did miss being part of their team. Not so much the flying, though; no matter how many times I did it, I never got used to riding on Erik in bird form.

“You were amazing.”
I smiled as Donavon’s voice filled my head.

“Where are you?”
I called to him.

“To your right.
Down. Down. Now more to the right,”
he instructed. I finally spotted him, sitting in the stands with Mac. I waved and felt warmth spread through me.

“Excuse me,” I said out loud to Erik and Henri, who were still relishing in the attention of the admiring students.
I made my way down to where Donavon and Mac sat.

“Not bad for someone who is out of practice, Natalia,” Mac greeted me with a backhanded compliment.

“Thank you, I think,” I responded, not really sure what else to say. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to check out this Baker girl.
After all, I did agree to devote one of my best resources to her training. Besides, when Donavon told me that you were defying Dr. Thistler’s advice, I wanted to be present in case you had another episode.”

I flushed guiltily and shot Donavon a withering glare.

“Sorry,”
he sent, shrugging apologetically.

Just then, Captain Alvarez joined us.
“Director, Donavon, good of you to come,” he smiled pleasantly at the father and son duo.

“I am just here to observe, but by all means put Donavon to work,” Mac replied.

“Donavon, head on down and Henri will give you a station to man. You too, Natalia,” Captain Alvarez suggested.

“Actually, I would prefer that Natalia observe with me,” Mac answered before I had a chance to comply.
“After all, she has done background on the students and had a chance to observe them yesterday. I would really like to hear her thoughts.” I knew that Mac thought a lot of my Talents, even if he was convinced that I’d been unfocused lately. However, he’d never really treated me like a peer, never asked for my opinion; Mac was more of the type to give you your opinion. I’d thought that his concession to let me work with Kenly had been his usual indulgence of my unorthodox requests - but maybe, just maybe, he respected my opinion enough to stand behind my decision.

“Of course, Director.”
Captain Alvarez smiled. “I’m sure that she’ll have some great insight.”

For the rest of the afternoon I followed Mac around with my communicator answering questions on each and every student present.
I noted the kids that he wanted to pay extra attention to – those whose Talents appeared stronger than reported in their files. For my own personal interest, I also made notes on those with weaker-than-reported Talents.

In accordance with the Mandatory Testing Act, every child was tested at the age of five for the presence of paranormal abilities.
Each child testing positive was given an initial Talent ranking: High, Medium, or Low. During Placement Exams each student would receive a more precise Talent ranking: Elite, Extremely High, High, Medium, Medium-Low, Low, or Extremely Low.

Admittedly, the initial rankings were extremely broad.
I was perplexed by the number of students whose powers were weak when their initial ranking had been High. The ones who were initially ranked Low or Medium but now exhibited higher levels of abilities seemed more normal to me. After eleven years of training and honing their Talents, it made sense that they would be stronger than the Agency initially thought.

Mac already knew some of the student bios by heart, the ones with particularly strong Talents.
He also seemed to know many of them personally, making small talk while we made our rounds. When it came time to observe Kenly, I held my breath. She wasn’t the worst combatant, but she appeared slow and uncoordinated compared to the others.

“You sure have your work cut out for you, Natalia,” Mac commented after she’d completed several of the obstacles.
I smiled thinly in return; I didn’t want to press my luck and say something that might make Mac change his mind about allowing me to work with her.

“Thank you all for coming,” Captain Alvarez’s voice boomed throughout the Arena.
“I hope that the past few days have been as helpful for all you students as they have been for us. I look forward to seeing all of you during Placement Exams at the end of the year.” With that, Captain Alvarez dismissed the kids from the day’s demonstration.