CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Instead of trying to shove everyone into the auditorium, Mama Irene insisted that they stay in the grove and eat while Kennedy and the others talked. AJ brought out a portable speaker and microphone, allowing Kennedy to speak in a normal tone of voice.
“Kennedy, what’s going on?” asked Cam.
“We looked at the tests for all of our genius ‘kids,’” she said, smiling at Chelsea and Katelyn. “Blood work was normal for all of them, no obvious surgeries that would suggest anything odd. Then we did the CT scans of the brain.”
“Please tell me I don’t have someone else’s brain,” frowned Katelyn. Kennedy smirked at the young woman.
“No, honey. It’s all yours. At least, we think it is.”
“What the hell does that mean?” frowned Maverick.
“There are places within their brain scans that show scar tissue. It’s tiny, extraordinarily tiny. It’s not large enough to have been an actual surgery, but it is large enough to be multiple needles injected over a defined period of time. Judging by the scarring, it was before the age of two on all of you.”
“Are you saying that we’re not really smart?” asked Marilisa.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I feel certain that you were all relatively intelligent. But someone injected something into your brains to enhance your skills. The interesting thing about it is that they injected each of your brains in a different part of the brain.”
“Kennedy, we need more, hun,” said Luke, shaking his head. Kennedy turned to look at Riley and Suzette.
“We all know that the brain is a complex organ,” said Riley. “There are thirteen functional areas of the cerebral cortex. Some areas control sight and image perception. Others control motor skills, some the muscles of speech, smell, pain, or hunger. Others control things like concentration, planning, judgment, and creativity. The cerebellum controls motor functions for coordination, balance, and movement.”
“Isn’t that what the Russians were screwing with in the athlete training programs?” asked Dom.
“Exactly. No one was ever sure, other than, of course, the use of steroids, which had nothing to do with those things. At least we didn’t think so,” said Riley.
“Riley, you’re starting to scare me,” said Katelyn.
“The frontal lobe of our brain is the most complex part of the brain. It’s what separates us from primates. It is the largest lobe of the brain and is responsible for things like reasoning, decision-making, sensory integration, and execution of movement.
“When you look at brain scans for individuals who have had brain injuries, you see a lack of activity in certain areas. Sometimes, we look at people who are musical geniuses or prodigies, and we see high activity in that part of the brain.”
“Or low,” said Miguel. “Like me. After the stroke.”
“Something like that,” nodded Riley. “Yours was damaged because of the stroke, and when we do your brain scans, we can see that. This is different. This is intentional needle indentations into the different portions of the brain. It’s almost as if they were creating your specialty.”
“Oh, I get it,” nodded Nigel. “Like Brady knows everything there is to know about marine life, and Victoria can compute everything in her head in split seconds.”
“Exactly like that,” smiled Kennedy.
“So, we were taken as infants or sold to the school by our families. Some of us were then sold again to another school or kidnapped. Some were to be ransomed off to some maniac in Russia. All the while, they’re injecting our brains with something we can’t identify to make us even smarter. And if I understand this correctly, the CIA is in on all of this. Do I have this right?” asked Katelyn.
“I think you have that right,” said Kennedy. “What I want to know is what they injected into your brains. There’s never been one single study that proves you can dramatically improve brain activity and function by taking certain medications or injecting medications. Whatever this is, I don’t know of it.”
“They could have injected us with something that will kill us eventually. Right?” asked Monroe.
“Truth?” Riley asked him.
“Yes, ma’am. Always.”
“We don’t know, Monroe. That’s a possibility. The good news is that there is no tracking device in your brains or bodies, and we don’t see any deterioration of your brains.”
“That’s good,” said Chelsea. “Most of us have been out of those schools for quite a while now. Surely, we would have seen something by now if it were going to happen.”
“It is good, and we don’t believe that any of you are in danger. But if the CIA was behind these schools, you’re in danger from them.”
“And the one most vulnerable is Hayes,” whispered Victoria. “He’s out there. Alone.”
“We’re still trying to find him,” said AJ. “The team he was assigned to was deployed to an undisclosed location. We’re trying to find out who’s on that team to get a message to watch him closely.”
Victoria just stared off toward the big house. They knew that she was struggling with the idea of not being able to get to him if needed, but they also knew that Hayes was a lot smarter about the outside world than she was.
“How do we stop them?” asked Katelyn.
“Babe, maybe you should let us take it from here,” said Maverick.
She looked at him and cocked her head with an expression he hadn’t seen before. He heard his father groaning behind him and turned to see the men all giving tiny little shakes of their heads.
“Take it from here? Meaning that Chelsea, me, Marilisa, and the others aren’t capable?” She gave a nod to Monroe, Spencer, and Nigel.
“No, that’s not…”
“I know what you meant. You meant that the big bad team from Voodoo Guardians would step up and save us all from the bad men of the agency. Well, news flash, Mav, we may not be as adept at hand to hand, guns, knives, bombs, and all the other amazing things you guys do, but we have a skill set of our own.”
“Honey, I know. You’re all brilliant.”
“Brilliant. Yes. Also very resourceful,” she said, grinning. “See, while you all were staring at us, wondering how you’d stop us from leaving, Monroe, Spencer, and Nigel gathered, how many, boys?”
“I got nine,” said Spencer.
“Eleven,” said Nigel.
“Sixteen,” laughed Monroe, holding up the wallets.
“What the fuck?” muttered Luke. “How the hell did you do that?”
“It’s easy,” smirked Monroe. “It’s about rerouting your senses. While we were taking your wallets, Marilisa was putting the bread pudding in front of each of you.”
“But you did that so quickly,” frowned Cam. He felt his back pocket and looked around. Nigel waved his wallet in the air, laughing.
“Do you guys do this at school or anywhere else?” asked Paige.
“No. I mean, not since we got here. We used to do it just to have money on us in case we could escape. Then they figured us out and watched us more closely,” said Nigel.
“No more pickpocketing,” said Luke.
“We are capable, in spite of our age. I think some of you forget that Hayes and Victoria are twenty-one and twenty-two now. I’m twenty-one, almost twenty-two,” said Marilisa. They all looked at one another, unsure of how that had happened while they were looking.
“We’re obviously highly intelligent, but we’re also highly resourceful. We can find who is responsible for this if you let us help.”