The Intuitives(104)

“Rush,” Ammu asked, grinning. “Did you witness any ‘creepy crawlies’ in the course of your perambulation?”

“Nope,” Rush replied easily. “All I found was this lousy thing.”

He grinned as he reached into a bag and pulled out an olive green T-shirt, tossing it in Sketch’s general direction. Seeing that Sketch still had his pad and pencil in his hands, Mackenzie snatched the shirt out of the air and passed it over to him.

“My T-shirt!” Sketch exclaimed happily. He held it up to examine it, turning it over so he could read both sides. On the front was the HRT Alpha logo, and on the back were the words Beta Invitational in large, stylized letters, with a litany of sponsor logos arrayed in three columns beneath it.

“Sorry about the size,” Rush said. “It’s a limited edition thing, so a men’s small was the best I could do.”

“It’s perfect!” Sketch declared, pulling it on over the top of the T-shirt he had already been wearing, blissfully ignoring the fact that his new prize hung down almost to his knees.

“Thanks for letting me do this, Ammu,” Rush said, turning to the man he had come to think of as his mentor, and his friend. “I promise I’ll only take the job as long as it won’t interfere with the ICIC. I mean, assuming I win, that is. I just want you to know the program is my number one priority.”

“So you have said many times this past week,” Ammu noted, smiling gently. “There is no need to thank me, or to reassure me for that matter. I have no doubt that you will be taking your place with everyone else when our classes begin in September—and we will be cheering for you proudly today.”

“I know you’ll win,” Sketch declared. “You’re the best. It’s your special pathway.”

“Yeah, about that…” Rush began, looking at Ammu and hesitating.

“Yes?” Ammu prompted.

“Well, I don’t think it probably matters now… at least, I hope it doesn’t… but there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you.”

“Oh?” Ammu raised his eyebrows, but there was no shadow of concern or prejudgment in his eyes, just the same intelligence, curiosity, and faith with which he had approached every new challenge they had faced together. It was something Rush and all of the Intuitives had come to count on, and what Rush loved about him most of all.

“Well, when I took the Intuition Assessment Battery, I kind of… didn’t really take it, you know, the right way.”

“How so?” Ammu asked, clearly puzzled.

“After the first few questions,” Rush admitted, “I just sort of filled in all the blanks randomly.”

“Oh my God,” Sam exclaimed, rolling her eyes in disgust. “All the rest of us get here through our genuine brainiac test scores, and of course Rush just waltzes in by sheer, dumb luck. Wouldn’t you know it?”

But Ammu was only smiling at him.

“What?” Rush demanded, clearly wishing he had waited to unveil his secret more privately.

“Surely you realize by now that I give very little credence to the idea of coincidence, especially when it comes to an occurrence of ‘luck’ as statistically unlikely as you are proposing.”

“Well, what was it then?” Rush asked.

“My dear Rush,” Ammu said, his eyes twinkling, “your unconscious mind understands patterns of thought—it is your most profound affinity, just as Daniel understands emotion, or as Kaitlyn understands the flow of energy.”

“So?” he said, still not seeing the connection.

“Ammu,” Sam scoffed, “you can’t be serious.”

“So,” Ammu continued, “I would argue that you did not need to take the test ‘the right way,’ as you say. Thanks to your particular pathway, you predicted the thought pattern of the test makers by recognizing the answers they would select. In its own way, the IAB did test your intuitive talent. You just did not know it!”

As Rush listened to Ammu’s explanation, a smile gradually dawned across his face. He had known he had a role to play at the ICIC, no matter what he had done on the day of the test, but it was nice to know that his place in the program was just as valid as anyone else’s.

“If that’s true,” he said, his eyes gleaming wickedly as he turned to look at Sam, “then in a way I’m kind of the most intuitive one here, wouldn’t you say, Ammu?”

“Oh, please,” Sam said, rolling her eyes.

“Face it,” Rush said, continuing to taunt her. “It does take two of you to kill me when we play together. So doesn’t that make me twice as intuitive as either one of you alone? I mean, just speaking mathematically, of course.”

Mackenzie snagged a pillow from the arm of the couch and tossed it at Rush’s head, but he caught it deftly while Sketch looked on, laughing.

“OK, man,” he said to Sketch. “You about done there? Better get moving if you want to come with me instead of sitting in the audience with everyone else. I have a tournament to win.”

“Yeah, just a sec—almost.” Sketch looked at the drawing on his lap, gave it a few final touches and then picked up the pad, carrying it with him and handing it to Rush. “I made it for you,” he said. “For good luck.”