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to focus their energy, locate the individual, and give an accurate description of the surroundings.  Unfortunately, strong Viewers are rare these days.  The one or two Talents that test positive for viewing every year are usually too weak to be very effective trackers.  At best, they are able to track an individual they are physically close with or related to by blood.
    The Planning Division is home to the Visionaries, or Talents that see the future.  The difficult with Visionaries is that most cannot control the timing of their visions.  The average strength Visionary only has a vision every couple weeks, and it occurs at random.  Most are unable to control the target of the vision as well. The strongest, or Elite level, Visionaries are able to concentrate on one person and see flashes of their future on command.  The insight of Visionaries often prevents attacks on our country.
    The Interrogation Division is manned by Talents with varying degrees of Telepathy and Mind Manipulation capabilities.  Telepaths and Mind Manipulators use their abilities to question any individual thought to be a threat to the country’s safety.  Telepaths can easily tell if a person is lying, and manipulators can compel him to tell the truth.  The Agency even lends out weaker telepaths and manipulators to local governments to interrogate criminal suspects.  Mental Talents have led to swift justice and an expedited legal system. Many years ago the Supreme Court ruled there was no need for a trial in cases where the prosecution has a documented Telepath or Mind Manipulator interrogate the suspect.
    There are also divisions within the agency that are not gift-specific.  The Research and Development and Medical sectors are staffed by any Talent exhibiting a high enough academic aptitude in one of the sciences, biology, chemistry, or physics.  Those demonstrating extraordinary physical strengths, that aren’t accepted into the Hunters, or don’t want to be, join Toxic’s Military division or Guard Toxic’s various facilities such as, weapons plants, prisons, and the McDonough School.  Some Talents stay on at the McDonough School and help the newbies develop their own abilities.  Finally, there are the low-level Talents, some of whom end up in one of the agency’s manufacturing plants, assembling anything from weapons to office chairs.  The really unfortunate low-level Talents become secretaries, cooks, or cleaning technicians.
    After the death of my family, I came to live, and attend McDonough.  My decision to Pledge the Hunters had brought me to my current home, the Hunters’ Village, at Elite Headquarters, located approximately one hundred miles west of the Nation’s capital in scenic Brentwood Springs, West Virginia.    If all went according to plan, I would officially graduate in one year, become a Hunter, and find the man responsible for the deaths of my parents.  But for now I would settle for learning to live with my new teammates, without killing Erik or dying of embarrassment on account of his constant teasing.

 
    Chapter Five
     
    I wasn’t hungry, but I accepted Henri’s invitation to have lunch with him before our afternoon practice anyway.  Henri was twenty-two and already a full-fledged Hunter after following the usual Toxic protocol.  He had started at the McDonough School, leaving his home in Somerset, Pennsylvania, when he was just five.  At seventeen he’d Pledged the Hunters and come to live at Elite Headquarters.  At eighteen, after successfully completing his Pledge year, he’d officially graduated and become a member of Toxic’s most coveted division.
    Henri and I chatted comfortably through lunch.  In the two weeks since my arrival we’d rarely spent any time alone, just the two of us.  Normally during meals he lectured me about the nuances of life in the Hunters.  But today he told me a little bit about his family back home in Pennsylvania.  His parents, neither of who are Talents