Amaryllis Read Free Page B

legal security investigation,” Amaryllis concluded. “I’ll work with you under the terms of the standard contract.”
    Lucas smiled thinly. “I thought you’d accept the arrangement. I’m a class-nine talent. That means Psynergy, Inc. can charge me a fortune for your services.”
    “You’re free to take your business to another agency.”
    “We both know it won’t be any cheaper elsewhere.” Lucas walked back to his chair and sat down. “Let’s get on with this. I haven’t got all day.”
    “Very well.” Amaryllis picked up her pen. “Now, then. You say you’re a class nine?”
    “Yes.”
    “Tested and certified, of course?”
    “Of course.” Lucas leaned down to unsnap the clasp of the briefcase he had set beside the chair. “I’ve got the usual papers to prove it.” He removed the official talent classification certificate that he had been given several years earlier when he had finally, reluctantly, submitted to testing. He tossed the folder that contained the test results onto Amaryllis’s desk. “All signed and sealed. If you’re qualified to work with a class ten, you’re safe enough with me. I only tested a nine.”
    “No need to be modest, Mr. Trent.” Amaryllis examined the certificate with great interest “Nines are extremely rare.”
    “So are full-spectrum prisms who can focus them.”
    “True. And that’s why my firm charges so much for my services. Supply and demand, Mr. Trent. As the owner of Lodestar Exploration, I’m sure you are intimately acquainted with those basic laws of economics.”
    Lucas ignored that. “Well? Everything in order?”
    She frowned as she flipped through the papers he had given her. “According to this, you weren’t tested until the age of twenty-two. That’s rather late. Most people are tested in their midteens.”
    “I grew up in the Western Islands,” Lucas replied easily. “We don’t have any fancy test facilities. There was no opportunity to get myself certified until I came to New Seattle to get my degree in Synergistic Crystal Mineralogy at the university.”
    “I see.”
    Lucas covertly studied Amaryllis’s expression as she finished examining the documents. He relaxed slightly when he saw her nod to herself, evidently satisfied.
    He had been forced to account for the delay in getting himself certified several times in the past. After all these years, he had his answer down to a glib spiel he could rattle off with little effort. The excuse of growing up in the Western Islands neatly sidestepped the truth, which was that he had deliberately avoided the test until he was certain that he could conceal his off-the-chart abilities.
    He had aimed for a class-eight certification but his control had not been as good in those days as it was now. He had wound up with a nine.
    He had opted not to go for a top-of-the-scale class ten because people tended to be wary around class tens. Most folks respected such talent, even admired it or were in awe of it, but a ten was rare enough to make them uneasy. Class tens often got treated with the same sort of cautious reserve as people who possessed great beauty or extremely high intelligence. That kind of attitude was not particularly good for business.
    Amaryllis closed the folder and tapped the tip of her pen against it. “You’re a detector-talent. You have the ability to sense other talents when they focus their psychic energies. That’s unusual.”
    “And damn useless for the most part.” Only a lie of omission this time, Lucas thought. He loosened his tie. “There aren’t a lot of applications for that sort of psychic power.”
    “I realize that,” she murmured sympathetically. “Most of the available job openings are in casino security.”
    “Yeah, I know. Personally, I’ve never been attracted to that line of work.” Lucas was well aware that detector-talents were often employed to ensure that talents who had a gift for analyzing the laws of chance did not cheat at cards or dice.