by Shawn Keys
Chloe nodded. “I agree. They might have already burned their whole life to get here.”
Jackie chewed on that a little, weighing the assumptions against her investigator instincts. Finally, she nodded. “Like Kyle said, as long as we remember we are making educated guesses and that any of these might pop out again as a good choice, I’m good with that as a starting point.”
She struck a few names from the list, saved a new copy, and refreshed the display.
Name
Sex
Age
Profession
Why Picked?
Jasper Marques
M
25
Masters Student
Published Opinions
Peyton Fairfax
F
26
Retail Store Manager
ID by Mentor
Kelton Glasbey
M
25
Military Officer
Highest Metric
Sterling Ochs
M
25
Campaign Finances
Connections
Paul Lubin
M
25
Accredited Journalist
Published Opinions
Annie Francis
F
25
Novelist (Independent)
Published Opinions
Rebecca Bruice
F
25
Firefighter Pilot
Legacy Father
Carlie Toff
F
26
Classical Musician
Highest Metric
Blaine Courtney
M
25
Idle: Extreme Sports
Legacy Father
Noah Levin
M
26
City Planner Engineer
ID by Mentor
Nylah Phillips
F
25
Police Officer
ID by Mentor
Dominic Stanton
M
26
Professional Athlete
Connections
Landon Curtis
M
25
Wall Street Broker
Highest Metric
Ada Workman
F
26
Marketing Professional
ID by Mentor
Chastity Eskin
F
25
Professional Student
Connections
Sanya Oleski
F
24
Commercial Pilot
Legacy Mother
Cade Perella
M
25
VC Fund Manager
ID by Mentor
Once again, they paused to consider their options.
Suddenly, Dazz snorted, “Take off Sterling and Blaine.”
Jackie scrunched up her nose. “Umm, why?”
Dazz rolled her eyes. “Because, anyone named like that has to be an arrogant prick.”
There was a burst of laughter around the room. Sobering a little, Kyle tapped through his own tablet to check their details. “Actually, she might be on to something. Both of them have silver spoons in their mouths. I’m talking billionaires. Identified trust-fund baby inductees.”
“We can’t eliminate everyone on the list with a wealthy parent. That’s nearly all of them,” Soo-Yun pointed out.
Chloe specified, “Only the uber-rich, then. If we sort by who has that many zeroes next to their names, we should strike Peyton and Chastity as well.” She let out a sultry laugh. “Their names are just as telling, aren’t they?”
Dazz threw up her hands. “Their parents might as well have called them ‘Stuck Up’ and ‘Insufferable’ while they were at it.”
Another round of laughter came, and Kyle didn’t mind. He knew they were taking some liberties here, and maybe a little bit of prejudice was showing through. He was sure there were a lot of perfectly nice Sterlings, Blaines, Peytons and Chastitys out in the world. But part of this was about them. They needed to be comfortable dealing with who they picked. In a strange, weird way, they had to pick someone they could end up trusting with their lives. Even if this student was only loyal to them because of the pressure they could bring to bear, the group would have to get into that headspace. Unless their cuts resulted in absolutely no-one to choose from, Kyle decided to not step in, letting it continue.
Jackie updated the list again, making those changes. She looked thoughtful, perhaps harboring the same concerns as Kyle, but not objecting either.
Name
Sex
Age
Profession
Why Picked?
Jasper Marques
M
25
Masters Student
Published Opinions
Kelton Glasbey
M
25
Military Officer
Highest Metric
Paul Lubin
M
25
Accredited Journalist
Published Opinions
Annie Francis
F
25
Novelist (Independent)
Published Opinions
Rebecca Bruice
F
25
Firefighter Pilot
Legacy Father
Carlie Toff
F
26
Classical Musician
Highest Metric
Noah Levin
M
26
City Planner Engineer
ID by Mentor
Nylah Phillips
F
25
Police Officer
ID by Mentor
Dominic Stanton
M
26
Professional Athlete
Connections
Landon Curtis
M
25
Wall Street Broker
Highest Metric
Ada Workman
F
26
Marketing Professional
ID by Mentor
Sanya Oleski
F
24
Commercial Pilot
Legacy Mother
Cade Perella
M
25
VC Fund Manager
ID by Mentor
The bouts of fun settled down into a little more deliberate thought. Scanning up and down, letting the details speak to them, they studied the list together intently.
This time, Chloe insisted, “We should drop everyone who is identified as being here for their public opinions. The others might have been convinced to think like this. These people convinced the bad guys all on their own. Easy to think of them as martyrs waiting to happen. They don’t even need this training camp to pollute their minds.”
Kyle wasn’t surprised it was Chloe who arrived at the first idea that had them all nodding immediately. Her common sense had struck to the heart of things.
Without even talking about it, Jackie was already moving to strike their names from the list.
Name
Sex
Age
Profession
Why Picked?
Kelton Glasbey
M
25
Military Officer
Highest Metric
Rebecca Bruice
F
25
Firefighter Pilot
Legacy Father
Carlie Toff
F
26
Classical Musician
Highest Metric
Noah Levin
M
26
City Planner Engineer
ID by Mentor
Nylah Phillips
F
25
Police Officer
ID by Mentor
Dominic Stanton
M
26
Professional Athlete
Connections
Landon Curtis
M
25
Wall Street Broker
Highest Metric
Ada Workman
F
26
Marketing Professional
ID by Mentor
Sanya Oleski
F
24
Commercial Pilot
Legacy Mother
Cade Perella
M
25
VC Fund Manager
ID by Mentor
Kyle attacked the problem in a different way. “Do we want to tangle with a military officer? Even if we have something on them, will he really be threatened? They’ve faced guns on the battlefield. Facing me down in a hotel room and telling me to go to hell won’t be that hard.”
Jackie hummed. “I’d argue the same thing for the professional athlete in the group. They face an unending string of criticism, schemes, and even death threats. Not only would we have to overcome his natural resistance. We’d spend the first hour or two just convincing him it isn’t a hoax.” The last comment was her mild attempt at a joke, but she meant it.
The others started looking at the list from the perspective of various expertise they didn’t want to take a run at.
Soo-Yun said, “I’ve had to deal with marketing professionals. I would be worried we wouldn’t be able to tell we are having an effect. The few I’ve met are salespeople, so we’ll be sorting through their lies the whole time. They’ll try to toy with us more than any other, and might succeed.”
“Think the cop should be left alone, too?” Dazz growled. “She’s most likely to see through our interrogation tactics, anyway. She’s been trained to do it herself, right? Plus, she’s already betrayed her oath once by even considering this. Any cop who isn’t treated everyone fair and equal… well, I’ll never trust them again, not for any reason.”
The flurry of ideas ended, and there weren’t any objections.
Taking the notes, Jackie saved yet another copy, making sure she could return to a previous stage at any time. Then, she called up a final version of the list.
Name
Sex
Age
Profession
Why Picked?
Rebecca Bruice
F
25
Firefighter Pilot
Legacy Father
Carlie Toff
F
26
Classical Musician
Highest Metric
Noah Levin
M
26
City Planner Engineer
ID by Mentor
Landon Curtis
M
25
Wall Street Broker
Highest Metric
Sanya Oleski
F
24
Commercial Pilot
Legacy Mother
Cade Perella
M
25
VC Fund Manager
ID by Mentor
Jackie exhaled in what sounded like satisfaction. “Six. That’s a lot more manageable, and we’ve still got quite a mix. Time to crack the files and start looking for ways we can come at each of them.” She took her own advice, pulling those specific ones into their own folder so she could focus her attention on them.
Chloe hugged her legs up to her chest. Folding up like that, her high socks showed off her lean calves. Tracing over her knee, an admirer would then be drawn along her taut thighs which curve into her firm ass being hugged by her boy-short panties. The position of her legs tempted but also prevented a glimpse of what lay between. Kyle had to struggle to keep his focus on what she was about to say. Soo-Yun was running a caressing hand along his own leg, making the distraction all the worse. Either unaware of the impact she was having or mercifully not drawing attention to it, Chloe said thoughtfully, “Carlie Toff is worth considering.”
Pulling himself back out of his daydreams, Kyle took himself to task. A few days without sex surrounded by lovely women, and you go all to pieces. Get it together! Don’t be a moon-struck moron. “Oh? What caught your eye.”
From beside him, Soo-Yun whispered so quickly only he could hear, “I can tell Chloe caught yours.”
Kyle gave her a deliberate tickle, making the beautiful Korean snicker and do what she could to fend him off while not dislodging her from her cuddled position.
Jackie tossed them a reproving look. “Alright, you two. Enough.” Focusing more deliberately on Chloe, she asked, “What did you notice?”
Unfortunately, Chloe was now watching the antics of the other two, her lips wet from a few flashes of her tongue as she watched the two tease each other.
Jackie pressed, perhaps a little more sharply than she had meant. “Chloe!”
The former-college student shook out of her voyeuristic habits, shot Jackie a guilty look by way of apology, then said, “Umm, right. Toff. She’s a little too perfect.”
Dazz snorted, doing her best to ignore the other fun going on by keeping her eyes glued to the computer files. “That’s kind of the point, Chlo. These people are all like that.”
Chloe looked like it took real effort to stop herself from sticking her tongue out at Dazz. “There’s a difference between amazing and unrealistic.”
Kyle saw where she was going. “Walk us through it, Chloe.”
The former-college student said, “Jackie, can you bring up her file? I’ve copied over an analysis file, if you can open it.” She waited until the DOJ agent did just that, then pointed up toward the wall display with her stylus. “So, Toff was overheard saying that she was asked to submit her DNA for consideration. Probably didn’t tell her that it was an evil, eugenics organization interested in her. Maybe a fertility experiment or something. All males get a baseline test when they turn twenty, but they would have needed an excuse for her. She admitted to one of the other students that she was approached after a performance. One of the dark-FDPC types must have liked the look of her and enjoying her playing. They were impressed with the DNA she submitted.”
She tapped open another view. “Unfortunately, we don’t have those initial results. We simply know from a few conversations that her ‘innate ability’ is why she’s here. But we have their baseline test program, as well as the ability to see the output. I raided her hairbrush and got a sample of my own.” She showcased the results by highlighting them. “Look at this. Their own program indicates a couple key indicators that I thought would disqualify her.”
Dazz suggested, “We might be misreading what they find acceptable at this stage. They might be shooting for something higher eventually, but not all at once.”
“We know they expect their agents to be at a ‘Superior’ rating rather than a mere baseline,” Chloe said. “This isn’t an exact science, but you’d think they would want her closer than this.”
“You’re suggesting she falsified her sample,” Kyle asked.
“Wouldn’t be that hard. If she thought it was a fertility study or some other opportunity to advance her music career, she might have thought it worth the fib.”
Kyle huffed, actually a little impressed by the pure daring. “Dangerous game. She might not have known how dangerous.”
Jackie said, “Problem is, we don’t know that is what she did. There are a few markers here that really are exceptional. Plus, we only have her hearsay on why she was accepted. For all we know, they needed a musically inclined agent to plant as a mole somewhere. Those could be the high standards they marked her for, and they are willing to allow a few of these others slide.”
Chloe’s hope faded. “Yeah. You’re right. Too thin to be sure.”
Dazz then tapped her screen. “What about Cade Perella? In every interaction with the others, he has presented himself as this ultra-slick, undefeatable fund manager: the new hot-shot among the venture capital crowd. Mi
ster Success, if you listen to his bullshit.” She made a raspberry with her lips. “Pfffh. Lying through his teeth is more like it. Couple friends of mine cobbled together a history on him. At least two incidents in his past look like insider trading deals. Then there was another where he played with dates on some contracts and ran this company out of business and feasted on the remains. Otherwise, all his other deals have been lukewarm, break-even propositions at best.”
Kyle rolled that around in his mind. “Sounds promising.” He focused on the list again. “Says we found out he was identified by a mentor of some kind. That’s a problem.”
Chloe agreed. “If they see the rest of us as worms, then they wouldn’t see it as all that bad to steal from lowly creatures such as us.”
“They might even see it as a virtue,” Soo-Yun murmured. “Getting away with it might have been a test for worthiness.” She began flipping around on her tablet, already searching for another target. As she did, her knee brushed up and down on Kyle’s side in an idle caress.
Instinctively, Kyle’s hand went down and rubbed along her bare skin in response. When she purred, he could feel the sound coming in from all around. It was an exquisite sensation that encouraged him to keep it up. With his mind half-shrouded in desire, his reasoning didn’t jump up and answer the call as quickly as it might.
