Flashback ( PDFDrive )

she’s an Empath.”
“How many Empaths wear gloves?” Dex countered.
“All I know is, I do not want to find out what Umber can do with a
Sophie boost,” Tam said quietly—and everyone shuddered.
“Agreed,” Magnate Leto said. “Clearly we need to find a way to give
Miss Foster more control over the ability. Weren’t you working on a
gadget along those lines, Mr. Dizznee?”
Dex looked anywhere but at Sophie when he mumbled, “I made a
prototype. But the concept . . . wasn’t right.”
Tam narrowed his eyes. “Why are you blushing?”
“I’m not,” Dex argued—too loud and too fast.
“So are you,” Tam said to Sophie.
She turned her face away. “Like Dex said. The concept wasn’t
right.”
The gadgets themselves had worked pretty well: two tiny
microtransmitters that put nonreactive force fields around her hands.
But . . . he’d chosen to camouflage them with crush cuffs, and it had
led to the most awkward conversation in the history of the world.
“I’ll try something else,” Dex promised.
“Make it your top priority,” Magnate Leto told him.
“Even over the caches?” Dex asked.
“Definitely,” Alden said, running a hand down his face. “Apparently
the caches are fake.”
Tam’s eyebrows shot up.
“How could they . . . ?” Dex said, sinking onto one of the empty
cots. “Actually? That explains a lot.”
“I know,” Sophie admitted, not sure what made her sicker: thinking
about how many months they’d wasted trying to learn something