Individuals

Bella's POV

24th May

I had spent the morning training with Trey and sitting with Victoria and Sebastian, planning Mission Prep classes. They gave me almost everything I wanted. Other than when I asked to take them outside on a test mission. After explaining through my plan, and conditions, they submitted. Sebastian was starting to believe that I was on their side. I could see it in his eyes.

Sitting, meditating in the middle of my floor, I opened my eyes as the door was opened. Dean stood looming in the doorway, a cardboard box in hand.

"Files on the recruits. You have them till lunch is over."

He placed the box down and pushed it across to me. As soon as he was gone, I lifted the lid off. On the top of the stack of yellow folders was Caitlin's. Uncrossing my legs, I turned around to face my bed. I placed the box beside me and Caitlin's file on top of my bed.

Name: Caitlin Jessica Goldberg

Born: 15th March 2003

Her entire medical history was included. Charts plotting her weight and height for the first three years of her life were included. All vaccinations she had received were documented. Her report cards from before she had been taken were copied in. Pages of progress reports from after she was taken filled the rest of the file. Some sections were redacted. But it was a good read. Enlightening in some ways.

Back home, Caitlin had a sister two years older. A sister who skipped a grade because of her intelligence. Caitlin had spent the first ten years of her life trying to live up to the expectations of her sister. And she'd done well in her own right. Given the chance, she'd have been likely to get into any Ivy League she wanted. Her personality was exactly what the Ghosts would have been looking for. This place is perfect for her. She had everything going for her here. She was top of the class, only now being challenged. She had no older sister to compete against. No parents with standards. Even though the Ghosts have standards and expectations, Caitlin had the confidence required in this place to meet those expectations.

The knowledge of her sister was useful. No wonder she didn't like me so much, I'd be a similar age to her sister. I was a reminder of her. A reminder that there was someone better out in the world. And the truth was, there was always someone better. I'm good. I know I am. But somewhere, there's someone better than me. I just hope I never get on their bad side.

Placing Caitlin's file down, I lifted the next in the box.

Name: Summer Williams

Born: 19th March 2003

Summer was the second daughter of three to two lawyers from California. Comfortable life. Safe. Private school education. Nothing particularly interesting. Having an older and younger sister would have influenced her ability to work well with others. Growing up, she had learnt how to feed off of peers that were younger and older than her. That I'd seen here.

Name: Ciara Aimee Montgomery

Born: 28th March 2003

Along with all the medical records and school history, Ciara's file had a report on both her parents. Her Father, Jason, had degrees in Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering. Previously having worked for several car companies before moving to NASA. He had a high intelligence but diagnosed OCD and mild ADHD, having experienced periods of hyper-focus when working. A difficult personality type to live with. Which is why it wasn't a surprise that his first wife had left him. But Ciara's Mother was the complete opposite. Her free natured attitude had taken her travelling straight out of High School. By 24 she was an established wildlife and travel photographer. Whilst working on an advertising project for NASA, she met Jason. They married two years later.

With one being a strong right brained thinker and the other far left, Ciara was born with so much potential. Her ability to process details and the whole picture at once was her using both sides of her brain equally. A little direction and guidance and she should be able to enhance that ability tenfold.

Name: Hayley Courtney Beaumont

Born: 30th March 2003

Beaumont, I knew that name. It was late 2013, December 12th, the youngest daughter of the Beaumont family disappeared when on a school trip. The Beaumont's were billionaire entrepreneurs, making their fortune in new tech and investments. They had six children, but it was young Hayley that went missing. It wasn't like the Ghosts to take a high-profile child. The family poured millions into searching for their daughter; offering up a 100,000-dollar reward for any useful information regarding what happened. Nothing had come of it though. I hadn't known that they'd been taking children so soon after we'd left. Just six months.

Name: Emma Louise Davis

Born: 12th April 2003

Parents both teachers but she tested an IQ of 127 at the age of five. I could have guessed as much from her performances in our more academic classes. The Ghosts had tested her again two years ago and she'd jumped to a 152. A genius. Something I'd picked up on from her low EQ. Your Emotional Quotient is your ability to process emotions. There were times when she'd be aware of how she should be feeling, but there were no markers of any emotion behind her actions. It's not that they don't feel. They just struggle recognising and processing what they are feeling. I'd be interested in her being tested again.

Name: Sienna Judith Tanner

Born: 21st April 2003

What to say about Sienna? She'd had a regular childhood. Her parents earnt enough for the three of them to be comfortable. She'd played little league softball for two years and taken dance classes between the age of 4 and 7. Like with the others, she had been taken at age 10. The Upper class consisted of forty girls. At first, she'd struggled. After a year, she started improving to the point that she was doing well. But once the class split into the nine, I know now, her lack of physical and mental ability, compared to the others became more prominent.

Name: Sophie Dana Ellis

Born: 1st May 2003

Born to Diane and Robert Ellis, older sister to Samantha. Musical from a young age, playing the piano, violin, and cello. She had a strong voice too. She wasn't as naturally smart though. Her efforts had been noticed and appreciated. Which was the only reason she was in this class.

Name: Ruby Jane Daniels

Born: 8th May 2003

The quietest of the group. She'd gone under my radar most of the time. I knew she was there. She didn't do particularly well in anything. And she had been at the bottom of the leader board a handle full of times, not enough to be an issue though.

Name: Paige Emily Jordan

Born: 10th May 2003

The youngest of the batch; but there was only two months between them all anyway. She'd been bottom of the leader board a lot. I'd seen her pain when we were training. The aggressive punishments were difficult to live with. That was the point though. If they didn't hurt, the recruits wouldn't care to be at the bottom.

These files provided me with a lot of new information and explanations for what I'd seen myself. It also reminded me of how normal these girls should be. They weren't like me. They hadn't been born different. They'd been chosen to be different. Out of the millions of children across the country, these girls had been taken.

I hated that I had to partake in training them. I despised what the Ghosts were doing, but there was nothing I could do to stop them. Not yet. I wasn't strong enough to take them on myself. And Trey… I didn't know what was going on with Trey. I wasn't so sure where his loyalties lay.

Sitting in my classroom, I waited for Caitlin to arrive. Dean had gone to pull her from her class, not telling her why. Her walk over here would get her adrenaline pumping. The fear of something unknown happening would terrify her. No matter how well prepared they would be for a mission, studying building layouts, watching CCTV, reading up on employees and targets, they'd be walking into an unknown. Something could change within the minutes of you walking into a building. I'd gone on a mission with two of my other recruits, and before we'd gone into the business block to retrieve data, a water pipe burst along the corridor the servers were on. The carefully crafted plan went out the window and the entire mission was improvised from there. It was still successful, but only because we stayed calm under the changing pressures.

The door was opened, and Caitlin stepped into the room, taking a small breath. She was relieved to see me and not Victoria. I didn't smile at her though. Her relief was good, but I wasn't going to make this easy on her.

"Sit, Recruit."

As she sat, Dean leaned through the door, smiling at me.

"Have fun."

He closed the door with a bang, making Caitlin jump. She was on edge again.

"You've been taken out of class to have a one on one with me after your performance in my class the other day. I wasn't all that impressed if I'm being honest. You achieved only five correct changes out of nine. And your contribution to the group task wasn't great either."

"I know I wasn't as good as some of the others. I was just overwhelmed by the challenge. I didn't expect you to layout the objects like that."

"That was the point. If you were good at it, there wouldn't have been any point in me wasting all our time getting you to do it. It was mostly a benchmark for me to gauge where you all are."

"So, what happens next?"

"My classes will continue. And those I think will benefit most from individual mentorship, will get it. You, Caitlin, are not one of those."

Her face showed minute, but visible signs that she felt rejected.

"You make a great recruit when working by yourself, Caitlin. That is not where you are lacking. It is your ability to adapt to the unexpected that needs work. I've designed tests specific for you. Neither you, or your other recruits will know who is being tested by each task I set. Some will test you all in the same way, some in different, and some will only test a few of you. Eventually you will learn to process information and changing situations quickly enough that your fear is undetectable."

"I can already do that. I've been deceiving Victoria for months."

Chuckling, I shook my head.

"No. You haven't. She only makes you think you do. That way she is in control. It's difficult to fully conceal feelings. Everyone has tells. Some are easier to read. And you, Caitlin, are an open book, to me at least. As soon as you saw it was me in here, you were relieved, but when Dean spoke, you became anxious. You were then disappointed that I didn't want to see you individually. I can see it all, Caitlin. There's no point trying to deceive me."

Her eyes were wide as she stared across at me.

"I was part of the Novum-X project. We aren't just cursed with gifts. We are advanced in every way. Most people only use 75% of their brain power. Some can unlock maybe another 5% of that over time. The hope is that all recruits here will eventually be able to access at least 87% of their brains. My fellow recruits and I use more than 100% of our brain. We have extra synapses that aren't normal. Which is why, no matter what you'd try, I'd always beat you. I was brought into your class to give you a challenge. You were never expected to beat me."

I watched the information sink in. Standing up, I walked around my desk and lifted the cloth that lay over it. I'd set out a 4 by 4 grid, sixteen items in each square.

"I may not want to work with you individually, but I want to test each of you individually. Stand up."

She stood immediately, her eyes not leaving the table of objects.

"What do you see?"

"A bunch of random items lain out in a square."

"At first look, yes. But each item has a pair. Some are more obvious than others. I want you to tell me all eight pairs and why they are pairs. Some items are deceptive in their pairing. When you list off the eight pairs, I will tell you if you are correct or not. I won't tell you which pairs are correct, but we shall keep going until you get all eight right. Start whenever you are ready."

She stared down at the grid and focused in on the test. I waited patiently, leaning against the desk.

"The shark and dolphin. They're both ocean animals."

Sitting still, I subtly tapped my right index finger against the desk.

"The frog and cat, both are land animals."

Tapping my right finger again, I glanced round at her face. She hadn't noticed, too concentrated on the items.

"The apple and tomato. They're both red and fruits."

"Pick one reasoning."

She furrowed her brow and shook her head. Analysing the other items, she came to a conclusion.

"They are red fruits."

I tapped my left finger once.

"And the apricot and mango are both orange fruits."

Tapping my left finger again, my lips pressed into a tight line.

"The string and chalk could be used to draw a perfect circle."

My left finger moved.

"The nail file and ring. They're both to do with fingers."

My right finger moved.

"The hair pin and the hair tie are both obviously for your hair."

I tapped my right finger for the fourth time.

"The shoe and pliers?"

"Why?"

"Ummmm, they're the odd ones out?"

My right finger moved again

"You got three out of eight. Try again."

It took her another seven tries before she'd matched all the pairs, just two of the reasonings out. But they were harder to identify. I stopped her there though. We were running out of time and she'd got close enough.

"Once everyone has completed a similar task, I will reveal the results. I couldn't possibly comment on how well you have done as I have no one to compare you too."

"Okay."

"You understand that you cannot tell the others about any of this. Not even meeting me. You tell them that you were taken for a doctor's assessment. Each of them must be as unaware as you were for this to be fair. And if anyone finds out, you will be punished. I don't want to see that happen, so you have to keep your mouth shut."

"I will."

"Good."

Just as expected, there was a knock on the door.

"Dean will take you back to your classes now."

The door was opened, and Dean entered. Caitlin silently stood up and followed him out. I was left sitting alone at my desk. I thought it had gone okay. Caitlin acted exactly how I had predicted. She was focused solely on the task at hand, blocking out everything around her. She only thought of finishing quickly, assuming that was how I'd be assessing them. I'd consider the time, of course, but it was more about the number of attempts taken to complete the task. Accuracy is more important than speed. If, when on a mission, Caitlin makes a mistake, there isn't a second chance. It could cost her, her life, or the life of another.