Free Caged (Talented Saga) by Sophie Davis Page A

smiled, regretting my choice. This kid was definitely in the Crypto department , I thought to myself. If his stringy, blonde hair and paler-than-normal complexion weren’t dead giveaways, his rambling lack of interpersonal skills were.
    “Talia,” I said, holding out my hand to him as I slid on to the bench. “I just started here as an assistant.”
    “Ernest Tate,” he replied, extending one freckled hand. “I am an Instructor for Advanced Crypto Techniques class.” Ha. I knew it.
    “Ah, so you’re a Brain,” I said, giving him a knowing grin. Brain was a slang term for a Higher Reasoning Talent. I hadn’t taken any advanced crypto classes – or any at all – while I was in school, but Penny obviously had. I added Ernest’s name to my growing list of files to be pulled. A Brain could definitely be the leak.
    “Yeah, I guess I am,” his face reddened with embarrassment. I decided to take a look into his thoughts.
    “How long have you been teaching here?” I asked as I took a bite of my ranch-drenched salad and latched on to his hazel eyes.
    “Just a year,” he answered.
    “Where were you stationed before that?” I continued. Ernest looked young, but I didn’t think that he was young enough to have only graduated the previous year.
    “A computer development facility in Scranton, Pennsylvania,” he answered.
    “How long were you there?” I pressed, swallowing the lettuce and picking up my knife to cut the chicken.
    “Two years,” he replied, playing with the gravy on his own plate. With every answer he gave, I got a better feel for his brain patterns. Like Electrical Manipulators, Higher Reasoning Talents had unique patterns. Ernest’s synapses fired so rapidly that it made me dizzy, and the overactive brain functioning was exactly what I’d expect from a strong Higher Reasoning.
    “Why did you leave?” I asked. If he thought that I was being nosey, he didn’t let on; he actually seemed pleased that a girl was taking an interest in him. I gathered that Ernest didn’t have a lot of friends.
    “The pressure was too much,” he admitted, his face going scarlet as he averted his eyes. I smiled sympathetically at him. He was an easy read, not much of a mental guard, and was telling the truth, at least about the pressure being too intense.
    “What did you do before you came here?” he asked, visibly sagging with relief when he no longer had the added weight of my mind on his shoulders.
    “I was ...well, I was a Hunter Pledge,” I answered after a long pause.
    “Man, you must know all about pressure, then, huh?” It wasn’t really a question as much as a statement, but I felt the need to answer anyway.
    “Yeah, I guess you could say that’s why I left my previous post, too. I basically broke down on my solo mission.” I tried to look like the admission made me uneasy, which wasn’t hard because it was basically the truth; I had broken down on my solo mission, at least physically.
    After lunch ended, Ernest walked with me to the academic building before saying our goodbyes. He might be a suspect, but at least Ernest seemed to like me. That was more than I could say for some of the others whom I’d encountered thus far.

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    My first class of the afternoon was Talent History taught by Thad Wietz. My interrogation of Ernest had left me little time to search Thad’s file for his red flag. I walked into the classroom and made my way to the front of the room to introduce myself, blind to Mac’s reasons for including him on my short list of suspects.
    The first thing that I noticed about Thad was his size. He was huge. Next to Thad, even Donavon would’ve looked like a child. He had a mess of reddish-brown hair, pulled back in a short ponytail, and his piercing green eyes bore down on me as I went to shake his enormous hand. When he spoke, he had an odd accent that I thought might be Scottish. I was willing to bet that his lineage was what had landed him on my suspect