The Intuitives(21)

9


Liaison Report



“Do you think they can do it?”

“I wouldn’t know, sir. I’ve only met Kaitlyn so far. She certainly takes her responsibilities seriously.”

“Well, that’s good, of course, but that isn’t what I’m asking.”

“I know. I’ve read the profiles. Their scores are all excellent.”

“But is the correlation legitimate? Has the test found what we’re looking for?”

“Do we even know what we’re looking for, exactly?”

“Don’t mock me with my own misgivings.”

“No, sir. I wasn’t trying to. I’m just asking what we’re hoping they can do.”

“Hell, we’re hoping they can show us what we’re dealing with. And how it works. And how to counter it. Preferably without figuring anything out for themselves. The last thing we need is a bunch of kids snap-twitting and face-chatting this thing all over the piss-damn Internet.”

“I understand that. But the more we keep them in the dark, the less they can tell us. The less they can participate in solving the problem.”

“How about you let me worry about matters of national security, and you worry about holding their sensitive, participation-loving hands. Is that clear enough for you? Or do I have to find someone else for the job?”

“No, sir. You’ve made your point.”

“Glad to hear it.”





10


Arrival



Roman Jackson had not expected to fly on an airplane ever in his life, let alone twice in one day. It was only the one trip so far—from Birmingham to Jackson Hole—but changing planes in Denver had technically put the flight count at two. By the standards of anyone Roman had ever met in his life, he was now officially well-traveled. Anything else the summer might bring was already just icing on the cake, and he wasn’t even at the school yet.

Miss Williams had sent a limousine to drive him into Birmingham, launching Marquon into a jealous fit, but Roman had been spared another beating because his mother had gotten up early to see him off. She had said it was the least she could do, given what his stipend would mean to the family.

Her proud dotings didn’t make Marquon any friendlier, but Roman didn’t care. He had finally done something to make his mother happy, and nothing was going to spoil that for him. She had even bought him a new set of colored pencils as a going-away present, a simple gesture that had made him tear up with gratitude. Gifts were not even guaranteed on birthdays in Roman’s family.

After she had hugged him good-bye, the limousine driver—a tall, white man who looked to Roman like he was wearing a red-checkered lumberjack shirt over his suit—had picked up Roman’s second-hand duffel and threadbare backpack and placed them both gently in the car as though they were a wealthy man’s luggage. Roman had enjoyed that immensely.

At the airport in Birmingham, the driver had stayed with him until Miss Williams had appeared to supervise the next leg of the journey, as though Roman were some kind of precious cargo—an attaché case, perhaps, full of diamonds and handcuffed to a government agent, to be escorted across the country by personal courier.

But Roman wasn’t embarrassed by the attention. He was relieved not to be flying by himself, and from the moment he met Miss Williams, he saw her wearing tall, golden boots, with a shimmering golden cape draped across her shoulders, as though she were his own personal superhero. He spent a lot of the trip just trying not to giggle.

When they finally arrived in Jackson Hole, it was still only mid-afternoon, and Miss Williams said they had some time to kill before the others would be landing. She led him to a small restaurant—Roman had not known there were restaurants in airports, but it made sense once he thought about it—and she surprised him by telling him to order anything he wanted. He asked whether he might just have a small order of fries and a drink, if that wasn’t too much trouble.

Miss Williams explained that the money she was offering to spend on him was not her own money, that it had been given to her by her employer to pay for meals on the trip, and that if she didn’t use it, she would have to return it, so Roman’s efforts to save it could not benefit her, personally, in any way.

When he suggested she could just keep the money and pretend they had spent it, she then explained, in substantial detail, the specific ins and outs of corporate expense accounts and the overarching importance of receipts, at which point he warmed up to the situation considerably. He finally ordered two cheeseburgers, a large fries, a side of biscuits, a side of hash browns, a soda, and a milkshake, ingesting so much of it at once that he ended up feeling as though he might never eat again. (But he squirreled the biscuits away in his backpack anyway, just in case.)

The last bit of the afternoon passed by in a hazy bliss of fullness, the likes of which he had never before experienced in all of his eleven years on this Earth, thereby leaving him in a wonderful mood, despite the long day of traveling, and more than ready to greet his fellow students when they finally arrived.

? ? ?

Daniel flew in on a nonstop flight from Los Angeles. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being away for the summer, having only agreed to it upon his mother’s gentle insistence, but the mountain view was already lifting his spirits, and the Jackson Hole airport made him feel as though the plane had accidentally landed at a five-star ski resort.