Extraordinary Mistakes II - Blood Ties

A limited resource

October 2028

Padma screens her card on the elevator and heads to the lab. Smiling while passing by several coworkers. The ones who work under Thomas Roberts. She smiles and greets them, all by name. The ones who work under Laurence Pierce. She smiles, asks one by one how they are doing. Genuinely asking and waiting for the answer to come.

Marianne passes her by, followed by her team. Padma smiles and asks Marianne if Aymee and Aminu are done for the day.

She continues walking and enters the lab finally. When the doors open, she sees Aminu and Aymee talking.

Why do you keep touching him? Padma pretends to smile when she sees the girl.

Aminu flinches every time Aymee's hand touches his shoulders. He tries not to make a big deal out of it. Aymee has been nothing but kind toward him.

"Paddy! What are you doing here?" Aymee asks Padma to come nearer. "Me and Aminu are a great team! Right?" she faces him.

The boy nods and fakes another smile.

"How's it going?" Padma tries to meet his eyes.

"Super, now that we have our own personal healers, right, Aminu? We're doing so much better now. No need for any other... performance enhancer... if you know what I mean, Paddy." Aymee smiles.

"Good to know. Aymee, I just saw Marianne and the rest of the team heading somewhere... shouldn't you be there too?" Padma smiles.

"Yes, the Ice Queen asked me to. Work is overwhelming... I truly need a vacation. Maybe I'll head to Nigeria, and you'll be my tour guide, Aminu!" She smiles and walks past Padma, padding her on the shoulder.

"Hey, stranger!" Padma goes a little nearer to Aminu.

He looks up, faces her and smiles.

"I haven't seen you in a while," Padma looks away.

"Always here. Every day here. Every hour here. Haven't even been to the Institute. No more classes. How will the kids understand their potential without the class?"

Aminu's class consisted in him amplifying the ability of the 7-year-old class, showing them how much they could accomplish if they behaved according to every rule of the Institute.

"Finding Emily and Abigail is the number one priority now. I'm sure that once they are safe, you'll get back to the classes. Everyone will understand why you were away."

"I know... just..." he stops and begins snapping his fingers.

"What is it, Aminu?" She looks at him.

"At least in the other lab, my knowledge was appreciated, you know? Here it's only my ability. We're more than our abilities."

"Give it time, now it's your ability, but your brain, all your hard work, will pay off. You'll see it."

***

"Aymee, welcome," Marianne notices her coming from behind.

Aymee joins the rest of the group. They look at Alex and Diego, each in their own room, with their bracelets on the wrists. One by one, Marianne's team focus on Alex's and Diego's brains. Once again going through their memories. Looking for something new.

Half an hour later, they all leave and go to Marianne's center.

"So?" Marianne asks when they enter her office and shut the door.

"There isn't anything that we didn't know already, Dr. Olsen." One of them answers.

"Not true," Aymee rolls her eyes, facing her colleague, "we knew already, Dr. Olsen about the deviants' forum."