The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [15]
“You may stay if you cooperate with me.” Why doesn’t he blink? she wondered. His stare was distracting and unnerving. She breathed deeply in an attempt to loosen the knot of tension beneath her ribs. She had to be careful here. According to his file, Tevren was more than brilliant. His intelligence quotient was off the scale, and he seemed willing and able to play with her head—if she let him.
“Your childhood?” she persisted.
“It’s all there in my file, which I’m certain you’ve already studied.”
She pushed back her chair, stood, and headed for the door.
“Please wait,” she heard him say.
Deanna turned and faced him with a sympathetic look. “I have better uses for my time than subjecting myself to your evasions.”
She turned back toward the door.
“I was an only child,” Tevren began. “My parents had almost given up on having children when I was born.”
Deanna took another step toward the exit.
“They spoiled me terribly.” Tevren’s words came in a rush. “Everything I wanted, they gave me. They were trying to make up for—”
He stopped as if he’d said too much, and Deanna half turned around. “What were they trying to make up for?”
“Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
“Tell me and I’ll sit down.”
“I was born with telepathic ability.”
Deanna worked to keep her expression blank. That significant piece of information hadn’t been in Tevren’s file, possibly because the only other people who knew it were his parents, who had been among his early victims. For the first time, she experienced a pang of sympathy for Tevren. The vast majority of Betazoid children developed their telepathic skills at puberty. Only a fraction of a percent were actually born with the ability, and without special guidance, these telepathic prodigies suffered incredibly debilitating psychological and social damage. Deanna had met and treated one, Tam Elbrun, when she was at the university. Tevren’s premature telepathic skills were possibly a contributing factor to his personality disorder. That might also explain why he, of all people, is my first case here. Lanolan must have known about Tevren’s developmental aberration and my work with Tam.
She resumed her seat at the table. “That must have been difficult for you.”
“On the contrary.” His tight little smile returned with an illusion of warmth, giving his unremarkable face a semblance of charm. “It put me at a tremendous advantage, always knowing what my parents and others were thinking. It made the adults around me much easier to manipulate.”
Her sympathy evaporated, and her objectivity returned. “Would you say you had a happy childhood?”
He shrugged. “It was the only one I knew. What could I compare it to?”
“Did you have many friends?”
“Several children wanted to be my friends. I am able to exert a certain charm when I wish to, but no, I didn’t have friends.”
“Why not?”
“People bore me.”
“Why?”
“Most are stupid.”
“Stupid?”
“Compared to me. I have four university degrees. I could have earned more, but what was the point?”
“Four degrees, yet the only job you’ve held is as a government researcher. With your intellectual capacity, shouldn’t you have advanced further in your career?”
“You’re stupid, too, you know.”
Troi refused to be baited. “I’m smart enough to realize you’re insulting me because you don’t want to answer my question.”
This time his grin split his face, gracing his ordinary features with a certain attractiveness. “I like you, Counselor Troi.”
“Then talk to me.”
He pushed back from the table, retreated into his half of the room, and stood before a window. Sunlight streamed down on his upturned face, its bright light accentuating the pallor of his skin, the thinness of his hair. A pink scar glowed at the base of his skull where the inhibitor had been inserted. He continued to stare out the window as he spoke. “My position as a government researcher gave me the highest clearance to the official records of Betazoid history. I became privy to secrets only a handful of people