Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks Read Free Book Online Page A

mood and blamed him for the fact that the thermostat in the hot-water system wasn't working. In these situations, Cadel always felt a powerful urge to tell everyone about his infamous traffic jam, or his brief penetration of the Pentagon security protocols.
    Such a feeling, he knew, could be dangerous. He had to resist it with all his might.
    "Should I have known that Jarrod was going to make his own bomb?" he asked, in a small voice. "Should I have expected that?"
    Thaddeus blinked. Dr. Darkkon said, "It was in the cards, Cadel."
    "There are certain personality types," Thaddeus remarked. "Self-destructive. Antisocial. I can tell you about them if you want. Though they can be useful, they're not reliable tools."
    "But should I have
known
what Jarrod was going to do?" Cadel pressed. "Is there some way I could have known?"
    After a long pause, Dr. Darkkon grimaced, and Thaddeus studied Cadel carefully.
    "You had no idea?" Thaddeus said at last. "It never crossed your mind that you might be planting a seed in Jarrod's?"
    Cadel shook his head. Thaddeus glanced at the transmitter screen, where Cadel's father was echoing his son's movement.
    "Well, in that case, dear boy, you should focus your attention on human behavior," Thaddeus advised. "You'll never reach your true potential if you discount the importance of people and the way they think."
    "Except that they
don't
think," Dr. Darkkon growled. "Most of'em don't, anyway."
    "Perhaps, but that doesn't mean they don't act." Thaddeus turned back to Cadel. "Being a bit of a behavioralist myself, I know there's a certain pattern to the chaos, if you look hard enough," he said. "So far, though, I haven't seen a 100 percent success rate when it comes to predicting people's actions."
    "There isn't a formula? Or a program?" Cadel wanted to know.
    "Not that I'm aware of," Thaddeus replied. "Nothing generic."
    "There are programs that plot population expansion," Dr. Darkkon interjected. "Certain predictive formulas associated with actuarial work, and so forth. Sociological measurements."
    "People are people," Thaddeus finished. "They tend to have fairly fixed personality patterns and routines—and there are usually danger signals that you can spot if someone's been traumatized, say—but on the whole, Cadel, even
I
can't forecast individual behavior. Not in a way that's scientifically admissible. I'm relying on instinct as much as anything else. Instinct and a very thorough knowledge of the person involved."
    Cadel nodded, thinking hard. It occurred to him, suddenly, that there could be no system more complex than the system of human interaction. All the petty disagreements, the sudden friendships, the jealousies, the emotional outbursts that swirled around him at school—could they all somehow be codified? Could he find the key to the network of hopes, loyalties, and basic needs underpinning every community in the world?
    He believed that he probably could, but not without a lot of work.

SIX
    By the time Cadel was ten years old, the Jamboree teaching staff had had enough. They felt that Cadel was now beyond them: He was clearly bored with everything they threw at him. They decided that his interest in applied chemistry, his repeated attempts to sneak on to the school computers, even his slightly patronizing manner, would best be handled in an environment geared toward teenagers.
    So Stuart and Lanna were left with the problem of where to send him. Stuart, who believed that Cadel needed more discipline, favored a boys' military academy with its own cadet training. Lanna was convinced that all-male environments were brutish and cruel, and that Cadel, with his girlish face and short stature, would be tormented in such a place.
    Finally they compromised by enrolling Cadel in a nearby private school called Crampton.
    Cadel had to pass an entrance exam before he was accepted into grade seven. He had to wear a straw hat whenever he donned his school uniform. During his first day at Crampton, he