Authors: Sophie Davis
Talented (6 page)
Chapter Nine
The days
quickly began to run together, one day morphing in to the next, until I lost all concept of time and days of the week. Each day was the same as the one before. Henri had been right; the more time I spent with them, the easier it was for me to create and hold the three-way mental connection. However, the mental bond didn’t come without a price. I was directing so much energy to my mental abilities, that my balance and coordination were off, and my other senses suffered. At the end of each day I swore that every inch of my body hurt, even my eyelashes. But thankfully I was so exhausted that I felt sleep instantly every night.
“I’m sure you’ve been wondering why I’
m pushing you so hard so fast,” Henri said, one morning over a breakfast of fatty strips of bacon and goopy eggs. “It hasn’t been for nothing.” He paused for dramatic effect.
“
Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Erik said sarcastically. I could that tell he already knew where this was going.
Henri gave him a pointed look. “Capt
ain Alvarez and Director McDonough have been so impressed with the progress that Talia is making, that they have given us our first Hunting assignment.”
My eyes grew wide
, with shock that quickly turned to excitement. I knew that as a Pledge I would be participating in several Hunts prior to my actual graduation from School, but I hadn’t imagined that it would happen so soon. I knew from Donavon that none of the other Pledges had been assigned a mission yet.
“Tell me all about it,” I squealed
, not bothering to hide my enthusiasm.
“I don’t have the specifics yet, b
ut it’s a pretty simple assignment. There is some information Toxic wants, and we need to retrieve it – preferably undetected. I should know more in a couple of days.”
“How does it
all work?” I pressed. Donavon had been telling me about Hunting missions since the day I went to live with the McDonough's, but I was so eager that I wanted Henri to tell me all over again.
“The Brains will give us
information on the location and the people associated with it. Then, we’ll stake out the location for a couple of days. We’ll make sure that all of the information we have is accurate and see what else we can learn. After that, we go in, get what we came for.”
“Sou
nds pretty simple,” I observed.
“S
hould be. These assignments are usually given to teams with Pledges. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t risks, so keep your excitement in check and take this seriously,” Henri warned.
I put everything I had
in to training that day. I pushed my mental and physical limits to just-short of their breaking points. My excitement was fueling my adrenaline, and I barely felt fatigued at the end of practice.
After we finished for the day
, I ran straight to Donavon’s cabin. Our schedules were so strenuous that I’d barely seen him in the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to tell him that I’d gotten my first assignment. I knocked on his door, impatiently tapping my foot.
Harris answered.
“Hey Tal, come on in,” he greeted me, holding the door open. “I was just heading to dinner so I’ll leave you two alone.” I waved dismissively at Harris as I locked eyes with Donavon. He was sitting on his bed, so I skipped over and gave him a big hug.
“You’
re in a great mood,”
he remarked.
”
I got my first assignment!”
“Congrats
.”
He sounded tired, and not nearly as enthusiastic as I’d hoped.
“I know I shouldn’t
be so excited, but this is my first step toward really doing something, you know?”
I tried to backpedal, embarrassed by my elation.
“We should celebrate,
”
Donavon answered, trying to match my mood.
“What do you have in mind?”
“How about tonight we go for a picnic dinner down by the lake? Then, tomorrow I’ll take you into D.C.?”
I frowned.
“I’m not allowed to go into the city, remember?”
“I bet if you call D
ad, he’ll authorize it. We’ll worry about it tomorrow, though. Tonight, I just want to be alone with you.”
I beamed
. I wanted to be alone with him too. Erik’s words about special favors from Mac ran through my head, and I knew I couldn’t ask for permission to go to Washington; Mac
would
authorize it if I asked, and I didn’t want to give anyone more ammunition against me. I would worry about that tomorrow.
“Let’s go,” I leaned down and kissed him.
We got hot-turkey-gravy sandwiches, cranberry juice and thick pieces of carrot cake (my favorite) at one of cafes, and took the dinner and blankets to the lake. The lake here was much smaller than the lake at school but it was still my favorite place at Elite Headquarters. We ate our sandwiches in comfortable silence, and I somehow managed to
not
spill any of the gravy on my shirt. The sun was going down on the other side of the lake; it was just at the height where it appeared to be sitting half in the water and half out of it. The temperature was perfect, and I felt comfortable in a short-sleeved shirt and light-weight pants. In short, everything about the night seemed perfect.
“
Fancy a swim?”
Donavon asked after we ate, twirling one of my curls around his finger.
”
I don’t have a suit,”
I replied, absently.
“You don’t need one.”
I snapped my head towards him and narrowed my eyes, understanding that by “swim” he really meant “let’s get naked”.
“
You first,”
I dared him with a confidence that I didn’t feel.
Donavon stood and stripped down to his underwea
r without hesitation. I tried to wiggle my eyebrows suggestively at him, like I’d seen other girls do when they were flirting with guys, but I felt more like my face was spasming. It was a warm night, but not warm enough to be standing around practically naked; I could see the gooseflesh springing up across his exposed skin. I suddenly felt very nervous.
“
Come on Tal, your turn.”
I hesitated. Donavon had seen me in my bathi
ng suit on numerous occasions, but he’d never actually
seen
me in my underwear. The mental and emotional connections that we shared were more intense than I imagined most people ever experienced in their lives, but our physical relationship was somewhat less evolved. I thought I wanted more yet something always held me back. I knew that Donavon wanted more. Until recently, he’d made every effort to keep his real thoughts from me. Lately, though, his teenage-boy hormones were overriding his regard for my feelings.
Slowly, I stood and lifted
my arms over my head. Donavon gripped the bottom of my shirt in his hands, and took his time as he lifted it over my head. I had to remind myself to breathe normally but my nervousness wouldn’t let me. I reached for the drawstring on my pants, but my hands were numb, and I couldn’t get the tie undone. Donavon gently pulled my fingers away. He knelt down in front of me, and kissed the space just below my bellybutton. I hugged my arms across my chest in an attempt to keep from shaking. I held my breath as he untied the string, and the pants fell in a pool around my feet.
Donavon held his hand out. I
uncrossed my arms and took it, stepping out of the black fabric puddled around my ankles. I was trembling from head to toe. I was scared to meet his eyes.
“
It’s just me, Tal. You don’t need to be nervous.”
“I know.”
“Look at me, Tal.”
He was still on his knees, so for once I looked down at him instead of up. He wrapped his hands around my waist; his fingers felt warm against my bare skin. His light blue eyes had clouded over, and become heavy with longing. He looked me up and down, making me more self-conscious.
“So, I
kinda assume we aren’t actually swimming?”
I tried to joke, attempting to mask my unease.
“No, no swimming,”
his mental voice was husky.
In one motion, he swept me off my feet, and up into his arms.
A nervous giggle escaped my lips. He laid me down on the blanket and leaned over me. He covered us both with the quilt he’d taken from his bed. Donavon propped himself up on one elbow, and bent over to plant his lips firmly on mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to match the intensity of his kiss. He ran the fingertips of his free hand lightly down my side, and the sensation made me shiver. His finger toyed with the edge of my boring cotton underwear; I immediately shrank away from his touch.
Donavon pulled back. His eyes found mine. ”
You still aren’t sure about this are you?”
“I don’t know
, Donavon.”
I tried to look away. “
I just don’t think I’m ready.”
“
It’s okay, Tal. I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t ready for.”
He may have said it was okay, but I could tell that he didn’t mean it.
I could hear, and feel, the frustration dripping from each word. We’d been having this conversation a lot lately.
“
I’m so sorry Donavon.”
I meant it. I
was
sorry. Sorry that we had to keep repeating this same conversation.
“Stop,
”
his mental voice demanded. “
Stop apologizing. It just makes me feel bad. Just give me a minute.”
He rolled over on to his back and took several deep breaths. I waited – my whole body tense, for him to say something, anything. Finally, he turned his head back to the side and met my eyes.
“
Come here.”
I crawled into his open arms. We lay like that for hours. He let his hands roam every once in a while – testing the waters I think. He ran his fingertips along my spine, down my arm, through my hair, across my cheek. While I could still feel his longing bubbling under the surface, I knew that he had no intention of trying anything else tonight. He didn’t want to face rejection twice in one evening. I liked being close to him, so I didn’t resist.
I don’t know what kept holding me back – I loved Donavon. I mean, I think I loved Donavon. From the first time I saw him, I had felt drawn to him. He was more than my boyfriend; he was my best friend; granted, he was my only friend, but still, I knew that I wanted to be with him, and only him.
It must’ve been a mixture of anticipation earlier, coupled with all the craziness from the past couple weeks that set my nerves on edge
, I reasoned with myself.
Next time I would be ready, or maybe the time after that.
“
I think we should head back,”
he said, after we had been laying there until well after curfew.
”
Do we have to? If Henri is going to be mad at me, he probably already is. So I might as well just stay out. Unless you’re tired of me?”
I teased him.
“
I never get tired of you,”
he sounded sincere.
“Good,
”
I smiled, not realizing until just then how worried I’d been about that.
“But I really should get you back, Henri might be a little upset about you missing curfew, but he’ll be furious if you don’t come home at all,”
Donavon reasoned, getting to his feet and pulling his rumbled clothes back on. Reluctantly I followed suit.
“Tal?”
he called hesitantly.
“Yeah?”
“I really do love you. I hope you know that.”
“I do
.”
Donavon walked me back to my cab
in and kissed me goodbye at the door. I eased the door open as slowly and quietly as I could manage. I slipped off my leather flip flops at the entrance, and crept across the wooden floor boards on my toes. I lowered myself into bed, willing the springs not to squeak. I let out a sigh as my head made contact with the pillow. I was sure that Henri would ream me in the morning, but at least I could go to sleep in peace.
“Natalia?”
Henri’s voice cut through the silence.
Crap.
“Yes?” I replied, tentatively.
“This is your one pass. Don’t miss curfew again.” He was trying to sound stern, but I could tell from his mind that he wasn’t really mad.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, trying to sound humble.
“Henri?”
“Yeah Tal?”
“I’m sorry,
” I seemed to be saying that a lot tonight.
“I know.”
Chapter Ten
“Get up. Get up. Get up,” Erik sang the next morning.
“Go away,
go away, go away,” I groaned, covering my head with a pillow.
“Go away?” h
e scoffed. “We have a big day ahead of us, and the sooner you get up the sooner we can get it started.”
“It’s my day off,” I whined.
“We have a surprise for you,” he tempted.
“I don’t like surpri
ses,” I countered.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if you had made curfew last night
,” Henri cut in dryly. Guilt washed over me. I groaned again, and threw the pillow in the direction that I judged Erik’s voice to be coming from.
“Nice. All that sensory deprivation training really paid off,” Erik c
ommended me, as the pillow hit him with a soft thud.
“Thanks, now tell me my surprise,” I said
, sitting up.
“You’re so demanding in the morning,” Erik teased.
“We’re taking you to D.C. for the day,” Henri announced.
“I’
m not allowed to go to the city. Remember, I’m just a lowly Pledge,” I tried not to sound too disappointed.
“I already cleared it with Captain Alvarez, who in turn called the Director
, who of course said you could go,” Henri replied dismissively.
I expected Erik to make a snide remark, but for once he kept his mouth shut.
“Wow. Thanks Henri.” Now I felt even worse about missing curfew the night before.
“You can only come for the day,” he
warned. “The Director wouldn’t budge on letting you stay down there after dark.”
“That’s okay, I‘
m just so excited to get to go at all!” I exclaimed, jumping out of my bed.
“Then get ready alrea
dy, so we can leave,” Erik urged. I squealed happily and skipped to the bathroom.
I absentmindedly hurried through my morning routine and opened up my mind to find Donavon. I could tell he was awake and in his cabin.
“Hey, guess what?”
I sent.
“What?”
his mental voice sounded sleepy, so I guessed he’d just woken up.
“
Henri cleared it with your Dad; I get to go to the city today!”
“With Henri and Erik?”
he didn’t sound happy.
“Well, yeah. I guess, so we can spend bonding time or whatever,”
I tried to sound offhand, but I was really excited and I didn’t want him ruining my mood.
“Oh, well
have fun, I guess,”
he was definitely irritated.
“I know you were hoping we could go together, but Henri went through the trouble of going to the Captain and calling your Dad and stuff,”
I started to apologize.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll take you another time,”
he cut me off.
“I’ll come find you when I get back,”
I promised.
“Yeah, whatever.”
I closed my mind again, he was killing my happy buzz.
Elite Headquarters is located in West Virginia, about a hundred miles west of the Nation’s capital. The actual compound sat on several hundred acres of what used-to-be farm land, but now boasted the latest and greatest technology that the world had to offer. The compound’s stores sell anything a Pledge or Operative
needs
. In Washington, D.C. you could buy anything imaginable, and probably many things that I couldn’t imagine. Erik, like many of the other Operatives, frequented the city bars to pick up girls, but Pledges weren’t usually allowed to visit the city, even on our days off. I guess the idea was that Pledges stationed at various other locations weren’t able to be afforded the same luxuries, so it wasn’t fair.
As a child, my parents and I had traveled constantly, never staying in one location for more than a couple of months. S
ince coming to live with Mac and his family my travels had been limited. My relocation trip to Elite Headquarters was the first time I’d left the School’s grounds since arriving seven years before. The notion that a real city existed, only a hover ride away, had been driving me crazy.
Donavon
had completed his Pledge year and graduated from School the year before; since becoming a full-fledged Hunter he had been taking full advantage of his newfound freedom. Sometimes he brought me flaky pastries filled with chocolate or strawberry cream from the bakeries. Other times, he brought back lengths of embroidered silks to take home to Gretchen, so she could have outfits made for me. When he was feeling lazy, he just bought trinkets from the street vendors.
Henri had reserved a hover car for the day that he used to drive the three of us the hundred miles into Washington. I kept my face glued to the cold glass, watching as the dense woods surrounding Headquarters gave way to small farms and spread-out houses. We were still twenty miles outside of the actual city when the buildings became more dense and elaborate. The roadways beneath us were packed with bumper-to-bumper road vehicles. From our vantage, point in the air I suddenly saw the city materialize beneath us. I stared down in wonder.
When we reached the outskirts of D.C. we flew straight through the border check point, without stopping. Ordinarily, all vehicles – both road and hover – needed to stop and the occupants were required to show identification. But, since we were in a clearly marked Agency car, we were able to sail through without pausing.
I was overwhelmed the moment we landed. The buildings were tall and packed so close together there was no space to walk in between – the height restrictions for the structures long forgotten. Most of the buildings were made of diffractive glass that changed color depending on where I stood. The architectural-style varied from one building to the next, with no two looking exactly alike. I saw some buildings that were short and square, some tall and thin, and several topped with elaborate sphere-like structures. I even saw one hexagon shaped building that had, what appeared to be, a moving walkway that snaked around the periphery, taking people all the way from street-level to the pinnacle. A sky railway arched high above the busy ground walkways, connecting one building to the next.
The sky was dotted with small hover cars – this must be their primary mode of transportation. Although the streets inside D.C., were just as packed with road mobiles as the beltways surrounding the city. The population must be so great the occupants needed both to get around in a timely fashion.
The men and women walking the streets were dressed in beautiful, albeit colorful outfits. Many of the younger had brightly colored hair that was dyed to match their clothing. I noticed a large number of people with unnatural eye colors, like mine and Erik’s. It wasn’t rare to have untraditional eye colors and actually it was so
not
rare that I was unsure why people still referred to my eye color as unnatural. Donavon had told me it was common for city kids to have their eye pigment altered, or in less extreme cases, wear colored lenses in their eyes.
The older women in Washington’s shopping district wore vibrant silk dresses, and intricately carved wooden high heeled shoes. Many wore ropes of colored, glass stones around their necks, and varying sizes of adornments in their ears. Some of the wealthier women had glass beads braided into exquisite
updos or bird feathers crowning their heads.
Working-class men and women pushed their way through the crowded sidewalks, wearing cheaply made business attire in varying shades of gray and navy. They ducked into sandwich shops and greasy fast food joints, trying to find the most expedient place to get food on their too short lunch breaks. All of the women wore makeup. The older women seemed to favor simple shades that accentuated their natural features. Younger women, and even some teenagers, sported makeup so thick that their faces looked more like painted masks, designed to look like a caricature of the wearer underneath.
I felt extremely plain, naked, in my boring navy, cotton dress, thong sandals and makeup-free face. At least I had my weird purplish-blue eyes and long spiral curls going for me. I did have more elaborate clothes in my closet at headquarters but I usually shied away from wearing them since none of the other Pledges or Operatives ever wore anything exciting.
“What do you think, Tals?” Erik interrupted my gazing.
“It’s beautiful,” I replied honestly.
“Far cry from school, huh?”
“Sure is,” I agreed softly.
The boys promised me a tour of their favorite places on the ride over, and I’d been worried that meant I would be spending the day becoming acquainted with the city’s drinking establishments. My fears were put to rest when our first stop was a candy store. Erik showed me how to use the computer to design my own taffy flavors, and then we watched as large metal claws pulled and stretched long pieces of taffy, mixing and melding, to create my custom candies.
After the candy store our next stop was the Air, Space and Technology Museum. There was a tour starting just as we passed through the entrance scanners; I figured we’d join the group. Instead, we walked straight past the throng of people towards the first exhibit. It turned out that Henri was a frequent enough museum patron that he gave the tour better than any guide could hope to.
For the rest of the morning, I followed the boys in and out of game shops, techie boutiques, clothing stores and several establishments that sold questionably legal merchandise. I tried to take it all in, but I was on sensory-overload by midmorning.
After a full morning of shopping, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that claimed to have “The Best Apple Pie in the District.” There were so many cakes and pies on the menu that, I considered just ordering dessert for lunch; then decided against spending the afternoon with a stomachache. I’d never heard of many of the dishes on the menu, so I settled on a cold octopus soup with spinach bread. Both the Academy and Headquarters rarely served any seafood, and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.
“What else do you want to see before you need to go back?” He
nri asked as we finished lunch.
“Can we see the ocean?” I asked hopefully. I knew the city was not actually bu
ilt on the ocean – it was about another hundred miles or so east – yet I hoped that since we had the hover mobile it wouldn’t be a problem. In a road mobile the trip would take hours, but in a hover mobile we could get there in just a half an hour.
“I guess we could do that,” Henri answered with a s
hrug. “Erik? Any complaints?”
“Have at it. You can take her to the ocean if you want. I think this might be wher
e we part ways,” Erik answered.
“Do you have something better to do?” I
demanded, for some reason offended that he wanted to run off so soon.
“Actually
, I do.”
I scowled at him.
“Fine. Be that way.” I turned to Henri, “You don’t mind do you?”
“No, not at all
. Erik, I’ll meet up with you later tonight?”
Erik nodded before heading out the door to the restaurant.
Henri led me back to the towering, above-ground parking garage where we’d left the hover mobile, and we set off for the short trip to the beach. Even though it had been over a hundred years since the nuclear reactors had leaked nuclear waste contaminating the planet’s oceans, very few people risked swimming. Instead, most people favored lakes and ponds – fresh bodies of water that didn’t connect to the ocean. As a result, the Eastern Shore beaches were relatively empty, and we were able to land the hover mobile right in the sand. I impatiently waited for Henri to pop the glass covering; once he did, I kicked off my shoes, and jumped over the side of the car, landing deftly on the balls of my feet in the soft sand.
I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes. The smell of salt water and seaweed fil
led my nostrils. I inhaled a little deeper and concentrated my mental energy towards expanding my sense of smell. I could pick up traces of fish and kelp, mixed with oil from the fishing boats. I’d always found it weird that people would eat the ocean life, but refuse to swim in the water. I exhaled happily.
The breeze coming off the water was cool
, but the sand was warm from the afternoon sun. I dropped to my knees and picked up handful after handful of sand, letting it trickle through my splayed fingers. As long as I kept my eyes closed, I could pretend that I was a little girl on the rocky beach of Capri.
When I was very young, before we started moving around all of the time, my family lived in a stone house
built into the bluffs overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. My mother would take me down to the beach at the base of the bluffs and let me play in the pinkish-orange sand. I would collect bottles of the sand and take it back to the house, where I would painstakingly sort out the pink and orange grains under a magnifying lens. My mother knew that the colored sand was a by-product of the ocean contamination, but she never ruined my fantasy by letting me in on the secret.
The
sand on the beach at the Eastern Shore was not pink or orange but rather a dark brownish black. The water here was a dark, muddy brown, a stark contrast to the clear, sparkling water of the Tyrrhenian Sea. I kept my eyes closed, and walked towards the sound of the waves lapping the shore. I heard Henri calling my name over the breaking of the waves, warning me not to get in the water. I ignored his counsel, and walked until I could feel the water swirling around my ankles. I stood, inhaling the salty spray, until my feet had sunk so deeply in to the wet sand that Henri had to help me out.
As the sun began to sink lower behind us, I knew my time at the beach had to come to an end. Mac had said I needed to be back by dark, and I didn’t want Henri getting in trouble on my account.
Henri and I rode back to Headquarters in silence.
“Thanks for today,” I said sincerely, when we pulled into the parking bay of Elite Headquarters.
“You deserve it, you’ve been working so hard.”
“I still appreciate it. It was nice of you to go to the trouble of getting permission from the Captain and all, to let me go,” I didn’t want him to that
think I expected special treatment because of Mac or Donavon or whoever else.
“It wasn’t a big deal; after all, being practically related to the Director does have its perks,” he winked at me to let me know he was, at least partially, joking.
I smiled, “I’ll see you later.”
I jumped out and watched as he took off back to the city, to join Erik for the evening.
