Talent Chronicles 2 - Impulse Control Read Online Free Page A

awkward word dance thing. “When I came here, I was one of those kids who had a lot of trouble controlling their Talent. I had a really bad temper and my Talent feeds on that. On stuff like anger and frustration. So I was like any other kid with a bad temper who had trouble controlling it and sometimes lashed out, except that when I lashed out, I lashed way out.
    And it may not surprise you to learn that coming here didn’t really help out with that a whole lot.”
    “What? You take a little kid away from his family and put him into a military institution with a bunch of freaks and he doesn’t immediately find inner peace?”
    “I know, right? What can I tell you, I was a tough case.
    Long story short, Karen decided to get into my head and start saving me from myself. She said I was supposed to have an inner voice of reason or something, and since I lacked it, she was going to be it. And she’s pretty much been in my head ever since.”
    “She never said.”
    “I may not give her enough credit on the whole privacy thing. She really, literally, saved my life. It was close, though. I was really angry and it took me a long time to get it under control. It’s been years since my temper’s been a problem, but they’re still waiting for me to screw up again.”
    Yeah, trouble controlling my temper. That’s all there was to it. This was such an over-simplification I was afraid my nose was gonna start growing.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever even heard you raise your voice.
    I almost think you’re making all this up.”
    “Anyway, I didn’t let Karen come because we didn’t need her for this and it seemed too risky to try to look after both of you.I did go on record, right, about hating this whole idea? I don’t think any of us should be doing this.”
    “Yeah, you mentioned. So, um, thanks for doing this. I know you didn’t have to get involved.”
    “Why are we doing this? I mean, why are you? What possible reason could you have for wanting to help Anderson?”
    “It’s not so much him, it’s the little kids, you know?
    Angie thinks I can actually help them. It’s hard for me to believe she’s right about that, but if she is, I’ve got to do it.

    But I want to try it on Anderson first. So I don’t get their hopes up. And Anderson…he’s a jerk and stuff, but he’s still a person. And he’s a Talent—one of us, not one of them, you know?”
    “Yeah, I guess.” I found my feet and held out my hand to her. “Let’s go fix the jerk.”
    A few minutes later we were in Anderson’s private room and he was looking at us skeptically.
    “You’re going to fix me? Fix what?”
    “She’s talking about trying to disconnect,” I jerked my chin in an imitation of his tick, “that chip,” I did it again, “in your head.”
    He glared at me. “That’s impossible.”
    “What have you got to lose? Or do you enjoy being their pet monkey? Or is it more like a robot?”
    “Ethan, cut it out,” Elle said. “Look, I fix things, okay. I can see how they used to be and I can fix them. Like the lock on the door. Or if you broke a dish. I think I might be able to see how your brain was, before the chip, and make it that way again. The chip would still be there, but we’re talking about…disconnecting it from the circuit.”
    “So if this works, it will still seem to them like it’s receiving their signals and delivering them, but I won’t hear them anymore?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t know what your experience will be. I don’t even know if this will work.”
    “And why are you even here?”
    “Because they’ve started working on a bunch of little kids here, and they’ve got a bunch more they’re starting in on next week,” I said.
    “Yeah, I know. So you’re using me as a guinea pig before you go mess with the kids’ brains.”
    “Basically,” Elle said honestly.
    “Yeah, all right. Do your thing.”
    “All right, just sit back and try to relax,” Elle said, moving around behind his