Psion Beta (6 page)

“
Because I don’t have any powers!”

“
Then you explain what happened.”

Sammy shifted in his chair. To stall for time, he looked around the room. It was small and abnormally clean, like it wasn’t used very often. A toilet stood in one corner and a sink in the other. The restraining table that had held Sammy consumed a large portion of the other side of the room. It felt like his cell in the Grinder, only nicer. The white-haired man continued to wait quietly for an answer. Sammy gave him a feeble shrug and muttered, “I don’t know.”

“
We ran DNA tests and scans. All of them confirmed your anomaly. We know you express Anomaly Eleven and Fourteen,” he said with an air of what Sammy thought sounded like excitement in his voice.

“
When did you do that? Test me, I mean?”

“
On the way here.”

“
And what does that mean to you? An anomaly?”

“
Many types of anomalies exist. The government ranks them with stars. One star means someone is born with a mild birth defect. Two stars is much more severe. Three stars always is a lethality in the fetus. One to three stars are only used to class someone during fetal development.”

The man paused as if to allow Sammy time to process the information. It sounded like a speech he had given many times before, and that annoyed Sammy.

“
Four and five stars are a completely different scenario. They do not express themselves until puberty. An increase in sex hormones triggers the production of unique enzymes that react differently with certain parts of the body. I can explain the science of it later. For now, it is enough to know that the government wants people who have them.” He gestured to Sammy, “Like in your case.”

“
Why would the government care about stuff like that?” Sammy questioned.

“
To protect citizens from dangerous––or unpredictable––elements in the general population,” the man answered. “You can appreciate the concern the government has––and the public would have––knowing citizens are out and about with uncontrollable abilities at their disposal. People get hurt. I have seen it happen several times. To use you as an example: you injured half a dozen officers in that alleyway without knowing what or how anything happened.”

“
Except that I am not one of your anomalies,” Sammy said.

“
But for now, why not pretend? Especially since you are. The government is interested in you.”

“
You mean the government wants to lock me up?” Sammy asked, getting to his feet. “I’ll fight you, and I’ll escape.”

The man chuckled. “Honestly, Samuel, I do not doubt you, but the reality is quite the opposite. The government wants to employ you.” Again the man displayed his ability to become very serious very fast.

Sammy walked to the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror above, and saw his brown eyes staring back at him.
Is this real? Am I some sort of freak?

The man looked at Sammy gravely in the mirror. “Your talents can be put to great use. Here, and I mean where you are right now, we train Anomaly Fourteens in a state-of-the-art facility to enter into the employ of the New World Government.”

“
What if someone says no? What if they don’t want to work for the government?”

Sammy saw the man’s deep concern that Sammy might not accept the offer. As the man spoke, he seemed to weigh each word:

“
If you choose that, no one will stop you or force you to do otherwise. However, as I said earlier, the government does not want to run the risk of having a free radical running about society unchecked. You will be given a drug, harmless of course, that informs us of your whereabouts and nullifies the enzyme that causes your anomaly. You will receive a visit from the Elite every other month for the rest of your life to ensure that you take this drug.”

Sammy didn’t have a response. Perhaps the man had taken Sammy too seriously. The truth was, Sammy didn’t know what to think. He felt like ice water had been dumped on him.

“
On the other hand,” the man continued, “you will not exactly be running about society since you will lose the clemency granted to you in order to become an agent of the NWG.”

“
My what?”

“
I had your crimes overturned on the supposition that you would accept my offer,” the man spoke as if this should have been obvious to Sammy. “If you reject it, you will be handed back over to the South African Territorial Government so they can deal with you.”

The conversation came to the point the man had warned him it would. Sammy’s decision would determine how the remainder would go. Go back to the Grinder or work for the government he hated? The choices seemed awfully similar.

Except I swore I’d never go back to the Grinder
. And with this man, he would be free. “Where are my friends?”

“
I don’t know,” the man told him.”What is your choice?”

They sat in silence for several seconds. Sammy needed to know what he was getting himself into. It was too surreal. He had so many questions. Did he actually have these powers? Finally he just blurted out the next thought that came to him.

“
What’s your name?”

“
My name is only known to those that work for me.”

Fair enough
. “What––uh––what are the negatives of working for you?” he asked next.

The man gazed at Sammy, impressed. “Good question. I must tell you that I can only inform you of so much until you give consent to enlist with NWG. So I will say this: The plusses far outweigh the minuses. The minuses include very real and extreme danger, a significant part of your life dedicated to loyal service to the government, agreeing to follow a strict code of guidelines in your lifestyle. I think that might be very difficult for you given your lifestyle. You’ll also have to live with anonymity for your hard work, and, again, there is extreme danger.”

“
Sounds dangerous.”

“
Good. You get the idea,” the man said no longer smiling. In fact, he almost looked sad, and his hand trembled for a second or two. “I cannot exaggerate the gravity of the duties you will acquire. I have lost people very close to me in this work. But as I said, it is worth it.”

“
And you’re sure I’m an anomaly whatever number you said?”

“
One hundred percent,” the man answered.

A week ago, Sammy would have ridiculed anyone who had told him he would join the government. And now he was here sitting across from this man, a man whose name he did not even know. Something about this man . . . Sammy liked him, and he had not met an adult he liked in a while. In the back of his mind he knew that no matter what dangers he faced, this man wouldn’t let him go unprepared. Sammy took a deep breath and blew it out.

“
Okay, I’m in.”

“
Excellent. The pay may not be great, but you cannot beat the benefits package we offer.” He paused as if he had told a joke and waited for Sammy to laugh.

Sammy did not get the humor. With deep sincerity, the man put a hand on Sammy’s shoulder and told him, “You made the right choice.” He offered his hand to Sammy, who took it. He had a firm grip. “By the way, my name is Commander Walter Byron. You can call me ‘Sir’ or ‘Commander.’”

“
Commander of what?” Sammy asked.

“
Psion Beta.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Come with me and find out.”

4.
Orientation

Commander Byron showed
Sammy out of the room and into a brightly lit hallway with white walls, ceilings, and a white foamy floor. Doors lined one side of the hallway, but the other side had none. Nothing Sammy could see satisfied his growing curiosity. They climbed two flights of stairs and came to an almost identical floor.

Silver numbers adorned each door here. The commander stopped in front of the door marked #1. Like all the doors Sammy had seen, only an eye scan would open it. Commander Byron showed Sammy inside and then said, “We have a meeting in about …” he looked at his watch, “… fifteen minutes. Four other recruits are waiting for me on the roof. Do you mind if I go get them?”

“
No problem.” Sammy looked forward to having a few moments alone.

Room 1 was very large but plain, furnished only with five straight-backed chairs and a simple podium. On the seat of each chair was a small box made of black wood. Each box had a name engraved into the lid. Sammy scanned the names. Samuel Berhane, Jr. had been branded into the box on the chair farthest from the door. He opened his box. Inside, he found a sleek new com, much more impressive than even the newest models Sammy had seen kids at the mall drooling over. He had never owned one.

He held it delicately. It had been over a year since he had gotten anything new without stealing it. He took it from the box and sat down in the chair. Despite the chair’s stiff appearance, Sammy thought it was comfortable. He tucked the com neatly around his ear and activated it. A holographic screen appeared over his eye showing a menu with several different options:

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that these were government coms, but the options seemed much more basic than his mom’s and dad’s. He chose option three, and a program came up asking him to enter his voice into the computer. It told him to pronounce several words and sounds so the computer could memorize his vocal nuances. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was fun. The rest of the time he spent browsing through the other menu options: the Schedule option came up blank, as did the Text Message and Personal Statistics. He didn’t dare mess with Emergency.

The door opened and Byron led inside a boy and three girls. They followed Byron closely, looking around the room with anxious faces and toting various amounts of luggage. The commander gave each of them reassuring smiles as he gestured them to sit.

The other boy was several centimeters shorter than Sammy, and appeared to be the most scared out of the bunch. He had a pale face with brown hair and blue eyes, almost like a younger version of Feet except this boy walked with his head down and shoulders slumped. The boy read all of the names on the boxes until he came to the one resting on the chair next to Sammy’s. The boy caught Sammy’s eye and then looked at the chair as if he needed permission to seat himself. Sammy offered a weak smile, and the boy sat down quickly.

Actually, Sammy wanted a better look at the three girls. Only boys got sent to the Grinder, and Sammy hadn’t seen one up close in weeks. One was black, much darker than him, with a nice face and pronounced cheekbones. She wore a dozen wooden bracelets on each wrist, and her hair was done up in different colored ribbons with feathers sticking straight up, making her look pretty in an exotic way, but also weird.

The next girl was shorter than the black girl. Her skin had a light olive color; she had bright, poison-green hair and big brown eyes that roamed constantly, never staying one place for too long. She examined everything from the room and chairs to Sammy’s face. This did not bother him as much as that she stood blocking the third girl from his view. When door closed, Byron asked the girls to sit down. The green-haired girl did so, and the last girl came to view. The air left his lungs, maybe even the whole room.

Her features were so soft that Sammy had no other explanation than the hand of a Creator sculpting her face to perfection. She had fair white skin, colored only by a dust of red on her cheeks, framed with a gentle pronouncement of her cheekbones and jaw line. Her vivid green eyes danced with an intelligent light enhanced by her dark blonde eyebrows. Even her red lips curved perfectly.

“
Samuel?” Byron asked. “Samuel, are you all right?”

“
Huh?” Sammy jerked out of his trance and looked at the commander.

Everyone in the room looked at him, even the blonde girl
. Oh no. How long was I staring?
Hot blood rushed to his face, burning his ears.

“
Sorry, Commander.”

“
Are you all right?” he repeated.

“
Yeah, I’m fine,” Sammy quickly replied, though his voice cracked again. This forced his face to grow even hotter.

He stole a glance at the girl again to make sure she was not looking at him. Luckily, she was talking to the green-haired girl again and didn’t seem to notice. He needed to get her attention again somehow, get her to look at him, but everything that came to mind seemed stupid.

Commander Byron spoke, pulling Sammy’s thoughts away from her: “Will each of you introduce yourselves? You will all be on the same footing as far as training goes, so you can lean on one another more than the students who have been here longer. Just stand and say your name, your age, and where you come from.”

Sammy waited to see if the blonde girl would stand up first, but she watched him, as did everyone else. When he stood up, he realized he was the only person in the room besides Commander Byron wearing a com. Not wanting to stand out, he hastily took it off, and returned it to its box. In his nervousness, he shut the box too hard, and it tumbled off the chair and onto the floor. Awkwardly, he bent down to retrieve the box and replaced it on the chair. He looked down at his hooded sweater, the same one he had been wearing for weeks, and realized how much filth and stain had collected on it.