The Intuitives(73)

39


Briefing



Christina and Ammu gathered everyone back into the classroom after breakfast, where there was now a television in front of the whiteboard with a DVD player hooked up to it. Mackenzie was grateful when Christina sat down with them at the far end. Leaving one of the six chairs empty all morning would have been a bit too reminiscent of a missing man formation, and if Mackenzie was feeling Rush’s absence, Sketch and Sam were taking it ten times harder.

Mackenzie had expected Sketch’s glum demeanor, but Sam’s vehement reaction surprised her, making her wonder whether Sam had liked the charismatic gamer more than she had let on. Mackenzie sat in the chair near the door on purpose, so that Sam and Sketch would both have to sit somewhere in the middle. Whether they liked it or not, neither one of them needed to feel any more alone right now than they already did.

In the end, Sketch sat next to Mackenzie, and Kaitlyn sat next to Christina. Daniel hesitated for a moment but ultimately sat next to Sketch, and Mackenzie nodded at him thankfully, leaving Sam to perch sullenly between Daniel and Kaitlyn. Ammu took his place near the television, cleared his throat, and began speaking.

“What I am about to tell you has its roots in ancient history, but I believe the historical facts will be difficult to take in—and even more difficult to believe—without a modern reference point. The video I am about to show you took place in Afghanistan. It is one of the events that prompted the development of the Intuition Assessment Battery.”

Ammu turned the television on, and the image that appeared was a still shot of a helicopter, viewed from above.

“This footage is highly classified. I can only show you the very brief segment that applies to our work here at the ICIC. It was captured by a drone, which was filming a certain mission, the details of which are not important. What is important is what happens in the next seven seconds of real time, so watch closely. I’ll play it at half speed to make it easier to see.”

Ammu pressed a button on the remote, and the video started moving. There was no sound, but the blades of the helicopter began to turn, and the camera tilted oddly for a moment before returning to its original angle. A second later, something raced into the picture from offscreen. Even at half speed, it moved incredibly fast. The image was blurred by the movement of the camera, but still, it was clear enough—whatever it was flew right up to the helicopter and caught the main blade in its hands, stopping the rotor and sending the copter into a wild spin.

“What the hell?” Sam blurted out, sitting up straighter and staring at the screen.

The image stopped again as Ammu paused the video.

“That, unfortunately, is all I have been permitted to show you. The helicopter crashed not long afterward, killing the soldiers on board. The military believed this to be some kind of bizarre mechanical failure, as they could not see what you have all just seen for yourselves. But suffice it to say they were soon convinced there was more going on than modern science could account for.”

“What was that thing?” Kaitlyn asked.

“You saw it?” Sketch asked in surprise, looking across Daniel and Sam to catch her eye.

“Yeah,” she confirmed.

“We all did, Sketch,” Mackenzie assured him.

“I didn’t, actually,” Christina said, her soft voice sounding troubled. “But I’d like to know what you all saw.”

“Sketch?” Ammu prompted. “Would you be willing to draw what you just saw for Christina?”

Sketch looked around nervously. He had not shown anyone any of his dark drawings since the whole Mr. Lockhart incident—not even Rush—and he didn’t want to start now. They all said they saw something, but was it the same thing he had seen? What if they thought it looked different? What if his drawing made them scared of him? Or made them think he was crazy?

“I don’t have my drawing stuff with me,” Sketch protested. “Maybe everyone else could just describe it?”

“Sure, Sketch,” Daniel agreed immediately, and Sketch gave him a small but grateful smile. “It looked like a body made of wind. Like a tornado sort of, only more like the size of a person. And it had a face, with dark holes for eyes and another hole for its mouth.”

In truth, Daniel was extremely nervous about describing it for Christina, especially given how strange Ammu had seemed yesterday. But Ammu wasn’t behaving oddly now, as though showing people videos of wind monsters taking down helicopters were a perfectly normal thing to do. And, anyway, Daniel had promised Rush he’d look out for Sketch. If it had been his own little brother in the hot seat, Daniel would have jumped in for him, too.

“It had lightning in its hands,” Kaitlyn added, not wanting Daniel to have to describe it alone, “but I didn’t see any feet. Just a tail that narrowed at the bottom.”

Sketch quietly exhaled a long sigh of relief. That was exactly what he had seen.

“That’s how Ammu described it,” Christina admitted. “I just wanted to know how it looked to you.”

Just wanted to check Ammu’s story, you mean, Sam thought, but Ammu didn’t seem troubled. In fact, he smiled at her comment. Probably glad he finally has someone to back him up.

Ammu turned the television off and began speaking again.

“What do you know about Alexander the Great?” he asked, seeming to change the subject entirely.