Awakened: Book One of the Mind Agents series

Awakened: Book One of the Mind Agents series, Chapter 15

Dr. Conway, or "the doctor," as everyone calls her, is short and unfailingly erect. She stands at a lectern in front of a small lecture hall with a curved ceiling. She brings her glasses to her eyes and flips open a folder full of papers.

This place isn't what Jack expected. He thought there would be some kind of underground bunker. Everything would be metal and black, with secret agents observing him from behind glass. Instead, the room is small, like a miniature college lecture hall with a floor that sloped down to the lectern. He, Maya, Chris, and Sabine sit near each other in built-in desks in the center of the room.

His brain is tired from the battery of IQ tests over the past few days, and now it seems like he's in for more of the same. But maybe these tests will be more high-tech than the paper and pencil so far. There are tablets on each desk this time, angled up like easels.

"Under your desktops you'll find a wearable device. It attaches to your forehead and over the ears, similar to a pair of glasses."

Jack feels under his desk and finds a light plastic band that looks like a futuristic visor. He puts it on, glancing at the others. Chris gives the item a dubious look. Maya struggles to get it around her hair.

"You will have twelve minutes to complete a series of short tests," she says, "tests for mental agility, empathy, remote viewing, and material intelligence. It's important to answer the questions as quickly as you can, without giving them much thought. Your responses must be, as much as possible, instinctive."

Jack looks over to Chris with a "here we go again" look.

"A series of questions and images will appear on the screen on your desk. Write the answers on the screen."

Jack looks at the screen. There's a government seal, and then it changes to a blank white screen.

"Begin," she says. A green light flashes on the wall above her. She walks out through a side door behind her.

The screen shows a picture of an iron safe. The caption on the screen reads, Give three alternate uses for this item. Jack gives Maya a look. Maya raises her eyebrows.

Jack looks back at his test and writes, Bath tub, flour bin, flower pot.

A new image appears on the screen: a saddle. Give three alternate uses for this item. Jack tries not to think about it for a moment, and then writes, Wall art, skate park for mouse, knee pad for giant.

Questions like these flow by. They go quickly enough that Jack doesn't take the time to look up at the others to see how they're doing. He blows through the questions as quickly as he can.

A series of math problems follows. They aren't difficult for Jack, at least at first. They're just strings of numbers, like 12 + 10 + 31 + 22, sometimes with addition, sometimes with subtraction, and sometimes with parenthetical multiplication or division thrown in. They start to get difficult when they turn into fractions, square roots, and more advanced math, but as soon as Jack starts feeling out of his depth, the test moves onto something else.

Jack feels like he's doing pretty well on these tests but is still clueless as to what they're supposed to measure.

A series of What's the next shape in this sequence? follows, which is similar to the IQ test he took a moment ago, but now the shapes are 3D, and slowly change into different shapes.

After a few rounds of questions, his screen goes blank. A red light fills the room for a few seconds.

"It's like a dance party in here," Chris says.