Evil Genius Read Free

until he could no longer hear the tramp of feet on stairs before strolling over to where Cadel sat in the typist's chair. Cadel ignored him. Suddenly, Thaddeus yanked at the chair, making it spin around until it was pointing toward him. Then he grabbed each armrest and leaned into Cadel's face.
    Cadel's hands jumped up in a startled reflex.
    "I'll make a deal with you, Cadel," said Thaddeus. "Can you keep a secret?"
    Solemnly, Cadel nodded.
    "Good. Then this is what we'll do. If you don't tell your parents about it, I'll let you use my computer whenever you come here. Does that sound good?"
    Again, Cadel nodded.
    "And all I ask in return is this." The corner of Thaddeus's mouth rose, revealing one yellowish, pointed canine tooth. Through the lenses of his spectacles, his eyes were as black as a snake's. His voice dropped to a throaty whisper. "Next time," he murmured, "whatever you do,
don't get caught.
"

TWO
    Cadel Piggott had a very special sort of mind. He could picture systems of all kinds in three dimensions, with perfect accuracy. He loved systems: phone systems, electrical systems, car engines, complicated traffic intersections. When he first saw a map of the Sydney rail system, pasted on the wall of a suburban train, he was enchanted.
    At Jamboree Gardens, the teachers understood the scope of his intelligence. They moved him up to fourth grade but would not accelerate his learning program any further. They told Mrs. Piggott that although Cadel's intellect was highly developed, his social skills were no better (and in some respects were poorer) than those of any other child his age. They did not believe that he would be comfortable socializing with children older than nine.
    "We've developed a series of additional math and literacy units that our teacher's assistant will take Cadel through," one of the teachers told Lanna. "We think they'll help to keep him happy and interested, along with our art and music programs. You know we place great emphasis on creativity in this school."
    But Cadel was neither happy nor interested. He was impatient with silk-screen printing and books about riding bikes to the park. His obsession was with systems, and he tended to ignore everything else. So he sometimes scored badly on reading-and-comprehension tests, though at other times the teachers at Jamboree Gardens would find him poring over books like
From Eniac to Univac: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Machines.
    It was very hard to keep him off the school computers.
    "He'd spend all day on them, if we let him," the principal told Lanna. "And when we don't, he becomes quite uncooperative. To be frank, we don't like him messing around with them, because half the time no one here can understand what he's doing. We can't supervise him responsibly if we don't know what we're supervising. It's very difficult."
    "I know," said Lanna in gloomy tones.
    "I really think he should be encouraged to focus his energies away from computer science," the principal continued. "A fully rounded person must diversify, or his intellect becomes narrow and blinkered. I think we'll have to institute a very strict timetable for Cadel. Make him understand that there's more to this world than computers."
    She was successful, to some degree. Forbidden computers both at home
and
at school, Cadel turned his attention to the Sydney Rail network. He obtained every timetable for the entire system. He rode every line, over and over again, though not unaccompanied: a part-time nanny usually came with him, because the Piggotts often employed nannies, none of whom stayed for very long.
    Occasionally during his sessions with Thaddeus, Cadel would even abandon the psychologist's computer and acquaint Thaddeus with his latest discoveries about gauges and signal boxes. When that happened, Thaddeus would put aside his newspaper and listen intently.
    One day he said: "Do you think you understand the system now?"
    Cadel pondered this question for at least half a